Didier Deschamps has insisted he is not concerned by the appointment of Argentinian officials to oversee the World Cup quarter-final between France and Morocco on Thursday, with a repeat of the 2022 final against Argentina still possible. “We have to deal with it,” he said. “I trust the referees. Our opponent is Morocco, not the referee.”
The France head coach, though, is not a natural diplomat. This was a characteristically combative display from Deschamps, who spent at least 90 seconds at the end of his press conference explaining why he really did not have time to answer one final question, before reluctantly answering, grumpily. He could not resist a jibe at those, many in the north African media, who had criticised the French official François Letexier’s performance during the last-16 game between Argentina and Egypt on Tuesday.
“Let’s hope ours are as good as Monsieur Letexier was,” he said. He was also scornful of questions from a Moroccan journalist about a penalty that might have been awarded for a possible foul on Sofiane Boufal in the World Cup semi-final between the sides in 2022.
Integrity has been a recurring theme recently and the appointment of Facundo Tello to referee the game with two Argentinian assistants, an Argentinian reserve assistant and an Argentinian fourth official raised eyebrows. Argentina were outraged by a – widely misconstrued – comment from Kylian Mbappé before the last tournament about European successes at recent World Cups, which in part provoked a racist chant that formed part of their victory celebrations after the final in Doha. The years since have been characterised by pointed remarks from both sides.
“There’s been a certain bitterness for a few years now since the last final, but that’s part of the game,” said France’s reserve goalkeeper Robin Risser, although he sought to play down an issue that has erupted on social media. “If these referees are there, it’s because they’re up to the level of the competition.”
At the same time, the repercussions of the bruising last-16 win against Paraguay have carried on, with Celeste Amarilla, a senator for Paraguay’s Liberal Radical party, deleting social media posts in which she racially abused Mbappé, whose penalty won the game for France, but demanding an apology for the Real Madrid forward dismissing her as “a despicable woman” who was “unworthy of your position”. The Paraguayan government and Fifa condemned Amarilla, and French prosecutors are investigating.
France’s players had shown remarkable self-control against Paraguay, and their federation had indicated its disdain for the machinations that led to the USA forward Folarin Balogun’s one-match ban for his red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina being suspended by appealing against a yellow card shown to Michael Olise. The Bayern Munich forward was booked after the Paraguay midfielder Matías Galarza threw himself to the ground clutching his face when replays clearly showed Olise had done no more than grab his shirt.
Deschamps confirmed, though, that Fifa has said the yellow card stands; there was no invoking of article 27 of the disciplinary code as there had been in the case of Balogun, seemingly after the intervention of Donald Trump.
France’s head coach was keen to underline how difficult an opponent Morocco will be. “They don’t have the profile of Paraguay,” he said. “We will need to be very effective because this Morocco is of very high quality. The level rises as you climb the mountain. Mindset doesn’t win matches but it can make you lose them.”
Given he will leave the France job after this tournament, the quarter-final could be Deschamps’ farewell. “The goal is to do everything to make sure it goes well,” he said. “That is the only thing driving me.”
Mohamed Ouahbi, meanwhile, was reluctant to claim too much credit for what his Morocco side has achieved so far. “I don’t like this feeling that we can say what we have done is great and everything now is a bonus,” he said. “We have to think about winning this game. The only bonus is winning the World Cup.”
Like Deschamps – although in a far more gracious way – he dismissed the significance to this game of that semi-final four years ago. “The Morocco side and the France side have both evolved,” he said, “and the level of both is improved compared to four years ago.”
Most of Ouahbi’s press conference, in fact, was spent playing down suggestions everything is stacked against Morocco. They have travelled roughly six times as far as France so far, but as Ouahbi pointed out, that was the result of a random draw and, to an extent, they have paid a price for finishing second in their group.
