After France defeated Morocco 2-0 in the World Cup semi-final on Wednesday, Kylian Mbappe sent a touching message to his good friend Achraf Hakimi..
Morocco had already made history by becoming the first African team to reach the final four, and they were hoping to shock the favorites.
Despite an impressive performance, the Atlas Lions were defeated as goals from Theo Hernandez and Randal Kolo Muani advanced France to Sunday’s final, where they will face Argentina’s Lionel Messi.
The battle between Mbappe and Hakimi had dominated the build-up to the game, with the PSG teammates known to have a close relationship off the field..
Mbappe was mostly kept quiet, but he did provide one decisive moment of magic when he weaved and danced his way through the Moroccan defense before his shot was deflected into the path of Muani, who put the ball into an empty net.
Mbappe was seen embracing a clearly distraught Hakimi after the game, and the 23-year-old took to social media shortly afterwards to pay tribute to his friend. He captioned a photo of the two of them hugging, “Don’t be sad bro, everybody is proud of what you did, you made history..
Morocco quickly became a fan favorite among neutrals, as the underdogs stunned Belgium, Spain, and Portugal en route to the semi-finals. And their manager, Walid Regragui, was filled with pride as he rejected his team’s full-time journey.
‘s of a human being at the time of a human being. “We are now going to support them (France).
The Moroccan team has made the entire world proud. We showed desire, played hard, and presented a positive image of Morocco and African football. We were there to represent our country and continent. People already respected us, but I believe they respect us even more now..
France, congratulations. They are a very good side, and they were well-positioned to win the game, but despite all of our injuries and fatigue, we pulled out all the stops, gave them everything, and caused them problems, and that is already quite an accomplishment.
“You can’t win a World Cup with miracles; you have to win it with hard work, and that’s exactly what we’ll do; we’ll keep working.”
Morocco does have one more game to play, as they face Croatia in the third-place playoff on Saturday. But all attention will be focused on Sunday, with the tantalizing prospect of Messi facing Mbappe in a blockbuster final..
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