Morocco vs. France World Cup prediction: Odds, picks, best bet for quarterfinals on Thursday

Four years ago, Morocco shocked everyone by reaching the semifinals of the World Cup.To get there, the Atlas Lions played like a quintessential underdog.

They defended with their lives and then capitalized on whatever counterattacking opportunities presented themselves during a given match.It wasn’t the most entertaining brand of soccer, but it was effective.Morocco topped their group ahead of Croatia, Belgium, and Canada, and then they defeated Spain and Portugal before bowing out against France in the semifinals.

You’d think the Atlas Lions would just run that same recipe back for 2026, but the Royal Moroccan Football Federation made a gutsy call when they essentially strongarmed Walid Regragui into resigning from his post as head coach so that they could hire Mohamed Ouahbi, a more progressive manager, to take over the program for the World Cup.Regragui led Morocco to the World Cup semifinals and the 2025 African Cup of Nations title, but the powers that be thought his pragmatic philosophy had run its course.You can only come out on the right side of a coin flip so many times in a row.More importantly, the decision-makers believed that Morocco had enough talent to go toe to toe with the best teams in the world.

So far, they’ve been proven right.Morocco opened the tournament with a draw against Brazil, ousted the Netherlands and Canada in their first two knockout matches, earning themselves a shot at France — and revenge — in the quarterfinals on Thursday afternoon.The only problem is that France is well equipped to handle what Morocco will throw at them at Gillette Stadium.Under the guidance of Didier Deschamps, Les Bleus have turned into a juggernaut.

Deschamps gets flak for being too conservative given the amount of talent at his disposal, but his philosophy is that if you take care of business on your own end, it means you only need a moment or two from your stars to be the difference.And when you’ve got a lineup filled with game-breakers like ...