France confirmed their spot to face Argentina in the 2022 Qatar World Cup final following their 2-0 victory over the tournament underdogs Morocco. Goals from Theo Hernandez and Randal Kolo Muani for Didier Deschamps' side earnt the victory and a date on Sunday, December 18 against Lionel Messi's Argentina
Messi guided Argentina into the final following a 3-0 win against Croatia by providing a typical Messi performance. The Paris Saint-Germain star scored an emphatic first half penalty and provided a mesmerizing assist for Man City star Julian Alvarez, who also scored in the first 45 minutes.
Deschamps was forced to make two changes to his team with Dayot Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot both absent and replaced by Ibrahima Konate and Youssouf Fofana.
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Despite his impressive cameo against Tunisia, Arsenal star William Saliba was snubbed by his national team boss in favour of Liverpool's Konate, with the 27 minutes he got against Tunisia likely to be his only minutes in Qatar.
While Arsenal fans perhaps would have liked to see Saliba feature more for his country, his lack of game-time is a massive boost for Mikel Arteta's side in their Premier League title pursuit, while Ben White and Aaron Ramsdale played no part of England's World Cup campaign.
Ahead of the World Cup kicking off, Arteta was asked who he wanted to win the World Cup and the Spaniard gave a simple seven-word response: “One of my players! I hope so."
Thomas Partey exited the competition in the group stages while Matt Turner, Granit Xhaka and Takehiro Tomiyasu all saw their campaigns end in the last-16. Bukayo Saka, Aaron Ramsdale and Ben White of England and Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli of Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals.
Many of the players exiting Qatar in the early rounds have now joined back up with Arsenal in Dubai, while Saliba's France can make Arteta's prediction come true if the French follow up their triumph in 2018 with a second consecutive World Cup crown.
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