Football Fever Cup Edition: The cream rises

Friday, France 2, Morocco 0 in Boston.

This was the same scoreline as when they met in the semifinals last time in 2022.

So France will play in their eighth World Cup semifinal, same number as Brazil.

Only Germany have played more with 12.

Do you feel as though France are favourite to win the World Cup? Have you always had them as one of your favourites? How do you assess where they are one game away from the final?

They are the eventual winners of this World Cup.

I thought France, along with Spain, were going to be the two nations fighting it out, duking it out for the World Cup.

Sadly, they meet in the semifinal.

I feel like this should be the World Cup final, Piney, but we've got them meeting in the semifinal stage.

And the difference between France and Spain, because you're talking about some seriously gifted, seriously talented footballers, some of the best on the face of the earth.

The difference between the two sides is Kylian Mbappe.

You know, a lethal marksman at the top of his game.

And that's the difference between the two.

So, yeah, I've always thought one of either France or Spain.

But having watched the tournament unfold and seeing not only the brilliance of Kylian Mbappe, but also Michael Alisse and the way he's just pulling strings in the middle of the park and unleashing Mbappe in front of goal.

It's hard to go past the French.

Yeah, I totally agree.

And Mbappe, even though he missed a penalty in this game in the 28th minute, one that he'd won, saw it safe, not a great penalty.

It feels like the best players in the world, Mbappe, Messi just can't take penalties.

Good to know they've got a chink in their armour.

But then Mbappe opened the scoring after an hour, this beautiful curling finish.

I love that the broadcast coverage is amazing.

This from behind is a lovely, lovely goal, isn't it?

Well, it is, and I'm glad you've mentioned them in conjunction with each other, the missed penalty and the beautiful curling goal, because he's paid...

Let's try and put this into some kind of perspective here.