France cruise into the semi-finals — and England should be worried

France are the first team into the semi-finals of the 2026 World Cup after a controlled 2-0 win over Morocco. Champions in 1998 and 2018, two-time European champions, and now favourites to lift the trophy on 19 July. That matters enormously in England, because Thomas Tuchel’s route to a first World Cup since 1966 almost certainly goes straight through Didier Deschamps’ side. The question is no longer whether France are good. It is whether anyone has worked out how to stop them.

France 2-0 Morocco: comfortable in a way that should worry everyone

France beat Morocco 2-0 on Thursday without conceding a goal and without a single moment of genuine panic. Morocco, the surprise semi-finalists of 2022, barely found space between the lines. Les Bleus became the first nation to book a place in the last four of the 2026 World Cup.

The scoreline undersells it. There was no desperate rearguard action, no ten men behind the ball in the final ten minutes. France played like a side that already knows it belongs in the final. In knockout football, that kind of calm tends to be worth more than raw talent.

What this means for Tuchel’s England

For England, the message is blunt. Lifting the trophy on 19 July probably means beating the best French team in a generation. Tuchel has built a side with more defensive structure than recent England squads, but France have exactly the profile that has historically hurt England: pace in transition and a midfield that does not lose the ball under pressure.

England’s advantage is that Tuchel knows this football from the inside. He has coached many of these French players at club level in Europe. Few managers in the world have more usable material on how France behave when a match tightens up.

Deschamps’ last tournament, and what it does to France

This is Didier Deschamps’ final tournament in charge of France. He is already the only man to lift the World Cup as captain, in 1998, and as manager, in 2018. A second trophy as a manager would put him somewhere nobody else has stood.

Teams playing for a departing, successful manager behave in a recognisable way. They make fewer careless mistakes and they compete for every loose ball. England would not just be facing eleven players. They would be facing a story that France desperately want to finish.

Where France can actually be hurt

No team is flawless, and this French side has an identifiable weakness: the defensive transition when both full-backs push high at the same time. That leaves an inside channel, and it is precisely the space Jude Bellingham is built to attack from deep.

The second factor is physical. France have leaned on a very consistent starting eleven through high-intensity matches, and accumulated yellow cards start to bite at this stage. A game still level at the seventy-minute mark suits England far more than the odds suggest.

England’s road to 19 July

The 2026 World Cup final is on 19 July. Before imagining that fixture, England have to win the matches actually in front of them, which is exactly where previous English generations came unstuck. Looking too far ahead has cost more than one favourite dearly.

If it does come, the trophy will likely arrive by beating the best France team ever assembled. That is not a bad way to end sixty years of hurt. No England triumph that anyone still talks about arrived down an easy road.

FAQ