France crew employees members are allegedly blaming England for Adrien Rabiot and Dayot Upamecano catching flu.
The defending champions beat Gareth Southgate’s facet 2-1 within the World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday evening.
Since then, midfielder Rabiot and centre-back Upamecano have come down with an sickness.
Rabiot is just not within the squad for his or her semi-final conflict with Morocco.
Upamecano is feeling barely higher, however has solely made the bench.
Youssouf Fofana and Ibrahima Konate have changed them within the beginning line-up.
It took the defending champions simply 4 minutes to shatter the minnow’s hearts with Mbappe’s effort saved however Hernandez driving within the rebound.
36 MINS OFF THE LINE!
A terrific break from that man Mbappe, left a number of Moroccan gamers of their wake with that run however simply loses his stability on the finish and the strike has much less behind it that you just’d need.
Off the road for Morocco and the rebound strike is up into the nostril bleed part of the stadium.
27 MINS MOROCCO STRUGGLE
You’ve received to really feel for a few of these guys, clearly not match by any commonplace however enjoying their hearts out and their followers making this atmosphere really feel like an away recreation for France.
Morocco simply operating out of gasoline on the odd event they really get the ball out of their very own half, no energy behind their strikes after which the counter assault from France is a punish. Very drained legs and we’re solely 29 minutes gone.
17 MINS AM FRANCE WITH A CHANCE
I’m shocked the left submit of the Morocco purpose hasn’t requested for a medical day out or to be substituted after that insane strike from Giroud, completely battered it he did.
Morocco actually displaying indicators they’re not totally match, struggling to maintain up with this relentless assault from France.
4 MINS WE HAVE A GOAL
The Moroccan defence has been breached and what a arrange by the defending champions.
It’s an unlucky deflection of Mbappe’s strike however the end is great from Theo Hernandez on an ungainly angle.
Deschamps is up on his toes, loving it. First blood to France, what response does Morocco have? This is the primary time they’ve been a purpose down this match – which is a sentence I by no means thought I’d write.
6am WE ARE UNDERWAY
A late drama for Morocco with FIFA releasing replace model of beginning XI and Aguerd was not listed
Dari begins on the again as an alternative. Saiss and Mazraoui nonetheless on the market enjoying damage it appears.
Illness has swept by way of the France World Cup camp on the eve of their semi-final.
The reigning champions face Morocco on the Al Bayt Stadium on Thursday morning (AEDT).
But their preparations have been hit with a significant blow with a bug spreading inside the squad.
Dayot Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot have been each compelled to sit down out of coaching on Wednesday, the crew’s final session earlier than dealing with Morocco.
And they’re mentioned to be critical doubts for the crunch conflict with the Atlas Lions, prompting a last-minute reshuffle.
Upamecano, who additionally missed coaching on Monday, has a sore throat whereas Rabiot can be below the climate.
It means Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate and Youssef Fofana are on standby in case the first-choice duo can not get well in time.
Konate and Fofana have been drafted in in opposition to Tunisia whereas William Saliba, Matteo Guendouzi, Eduardo Camavinga and Jordan Veretout are different choices for Deschamps.
Rabiot has performed in all 5 matches whereas Upamecano was rested for the defeat to Tunisia after qualification for the knockout rounds was already secured.
They each performed the complete 90 minutes of Les Bleus’ 2-1 quarter-final win over England on Saturday and Deschamps wished to maintain an unchanged XI.
Upamecano got here below criticism for his poor defending in opposition to Harry Kane all through the match.
Rabiot, in the meantime, brought about controversy by claiming Kane’s penalty miss was “justice”.
The Juventus man mentioned: “First of all, I’m not sure that it’s really a foul.
“We’ve seen hundreds of actions like that that aren’t given.
“Of course, when he’s missed, we were happy, it was justice because there was no penalty.”
France went into their title defence with out N’Golo Kante, Paul Pogba or Karim Benzema and misplaced Lucas Hernandez to an ACL damage of their opener in opposition to Australia – though Benzema may technically make a shock return in the event that they attain the ultimate.
They are but to maintain a clear sheet in Qatar – whereas tomorrow’s opponents Morocco have conceded simply as soon as, together with a penalty shootout.
That was an personal purpose in opposition to Canada earlier than knocking Spain and Portugal out to develop into the primary African facet to succeed in the semi-finals of a World Cup.
Now Walid Regragui is plotting how one can cease Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann – however striker Youssef En-Nesyri can be buoyed by the news of disruption to the defence.
Originally printed as World Cup 2022: Get all the most recent news, scores and outcomes as France takes on Morocco
