France continued their dominant World Cup title defence by beating England in the quarter finals.
Les Bleus edged a frantic encounter thanks to goals from Aurelien Tchouameni and Olivier Giroud. Harry Kane scored one penalty but missed another chance to level from the spot as the Three Lions bowed at the quarter final stage.
France march on to the semi finals and now know who stands between them and a spot in the final.
France’s victory over England has set up a last four clash with Morocco.
Morocco became the first African side ever to reach the semi finals when they beat Portugal in the last eight. Youssef En-Nesyri’s header proved to be the only goal of the game as the Atlas Lions won 1-0.
They had previously beaten both Belgium and Canada to win Group F. They faced Spain in the last 16 and survived their ‘death by passing’ approach to take the game to penalties. Pablo Sarabia, Carlos Soler and Sergio Busquets all missed to allow Achraf Hakimi to Panenka in the winner.
The first semi final will see Argentina take on Croatia for a spot in the final.
Argentina were taken to penalties by the Netherlands despite being 2-0 up in normal time, but misses from Dutchman Steven Berghuis and Virgil van Dijk ensured four successful Argentina efforts took them in the final four.
Croatia have been excellent. They held their nerve in the last 16 to beat Japan on penalties before providing the shock of the tournament so far in the quarter finals, ousting favourites Brazil via the same method.
Credit: 90min.com