Saibari out for France quarter-final, Ouahbi stays calm

Saibari out of the France quarter-final

Ismael Saibari will miss Thursday's World Cup quarter-final against France. A thigh injury has ruled Morocco's breakout star out of the biggest match of the tournament (1) (2) (5). No timeline was given for a return, but he will not feature at all. Saibari has been your team's player of the World Cup, this lands hard.

Ouahbi: more worried about Canada than France

Mohamed Ouahbi is not sweating the occasion. "I may have been a little more worried about Canada," the Morocco manager said ahead of the France match. "I am very calm" (4). The quarter-final kicks off Thursday at 22:00 in Boston (4) (6). France stand between your team and a first-ever World Cup semi-final.

Halhal thrown in, and he delivered

Redouane Halhal made his Morocco debut against Canada out of necessity. Chadi Riad went down injured and Halhal stepped in as the emergency solution (3). He did not look out of place. The young defender had only a brief spell at Atlético Madrid before this moment, now he has a World Cup knockout start on his CV.

Fan reactions

Morocco fans are not backing down. One popular post on r/worldcup reads: "People are sleeping on Morocco. I wouldn't be surprised if they beat France." Over on r/soccer, Deschamps' comments praising the referee from Argentina–Egypt have raised eyebrows, he called the official "as good as Mr Letexier" and added "my opponent is Morocco, not the referee." See the thread.