The World Cup semifinals are set! With Croatia and Argentina clinching their spots on Friday, history was made on Saturday with Morocco beating Portugal to be the first African team to reach the final four. They’ll meet defending champions France, who outlasted England in the other quarterfinal match.
Be sure to check in with ESPN throughout the tournament as we bring you the latest from Qatar. Here’s what you might have missed from Saturday’s World Cup happenings, and a look ahead to next week’s action.
– World Cup news, features, previews and more
– Stream FC Daily and Futbol Americas on ESPN+
World Cup semifinals: Argentina-Croatia, France-Morocco
After Saturday’s matches, we have two full days off before the first semifinal game (Argentina-Croatia) kicks off on Tuesday, with the second tilt (France-Morocco) on Wednesday. There’ll be plenty of previews and breakdowns of the two games with an eye toward the final on Dec. 18, but a couple of notes to start off:
It’s the seventh semifinal appearance for France, followed by Argentina (5), Croatia (3) and Morocco (1).
Morocco are the first African nation to advance to the World Cup semifinals, and just the third country outside of Europe and South America to reach the semis, last done by co-hosts South Korea in 2002 (and by the United States in the inaugural 1930 edition).
France are the first defending champions to reach the semis since Brazil did so in 1998, where they eventually lost in the final to … France.
With his goal against the Netherlands, Lionel Messi tied fellow legend Gabriel Batistuta for most World Cup goals by an Argentine (10).
Don’t try to leave it late when playing Croatia. They join Germany as the teams with the most penalty-shootout wins without a loss in World Cup history (both 4-0 in shootouts).
