World Cup 2022 LIVE France vs Morocco score and latest updates from semi-final – Morocco fighting back after Theo Hernandez goal

Lawrence Ostlere from the Al Bayt Stadium:

Morocco’s chants are loud, constant and diverse, as explained to The Independent at half-time by one fan with several Moroccan flags flapping around his body.

‘“Always Morocco!” is a regular refrain. “Boys, bring it home!” is an impassioned plea. And “Goal! Goal! Goal!” is their way of sucking the ball into the net when their team gets close.

And they are getting closer.

69 mins: Close! Walid Regragui makes another two changes for Morocco and switches things up in the forward line. Sofiane Boufal and Youssef En-Nesyri go off with Abderrazak Hamdallah and Zakaria Aboukhal coming on.

Aboukhal almost meets an immediate impact as Attiat Allah brings the ball down the left before flicking one into the box. Aboukhal leaps towards it but the ball skims over his head and France clear their lines.

66 mins: Didier Deschamps makes his first substitution of the night and replaces Olivier Giroud with Marcus Thuram. Thuram has moved out onto the left wing with Kylian Mbappe now playing through the middle for France.

63 mins: France have found this second half to be uncomfortable. They’ve hardly had the ball inside Morocco’s final third and are resorting to long balls.

Konate sends it up the pitch where Griezmann nods the ball across to Dembele on the right wing. He whips in a cross but Giroud overruns the ball and Morocco recover possession.

60 mins: Griezmann is clipped on the ankle by Attiat Allah as he checks his run into the Moroccan half of the pitch. France knock the ball over to the right wing and give it back to Griezmann who loses out to Sofyan Amrabat’s well-timed challenge.

57 mins: Morocco’s pressure will bring them their rewards. Hakimi and Ziyech combine again on the right and link up with Ounahi who drifts out wide to receive the ball.

He slips it into the box for Ziyech’s underlapping run but Griezmann is back in time to cut out his square pass.

54 mins: Close! A Morocco equaliser looks closer by the minute. Sofiane Boufal weaves his way into the box from the right and looks to find Youssef En-Nesyri but the ball just evades the forward.

It bounces through to Yahia Attiat Allah who attempts a similar volley to Theo Hernandez’s goal but miscues that chance.

In a separate move, Morocco attack down the left with Attiat Allah carrying the ball into the box from the left. En-Nesyri is waiting in the six-yard box and the left-back gets the ball across to him only for Raphael Varane to intercept and clear the danger.

51 mins: Nice! Morocco float a diagonal ball over to the right wing where Achraf Hakimi brings it under control before slipping a pass into the box for Hakim Ziyech. Ziyech looks for the cross but his pass is blocked by Ibrahima Konate.

France clear their lines and send the ball over to Kylian Mbappe on the left wing. He dinks the ball down the line and storms past the Moroccan right-back.

Mbappe gets the ball to the byline but is then cleaned out by a back-tracking Selim Amallah.

48 mins: Close! Ibrahima Konate feeds a lovely ball up the pitch to Aurelian Tchouameni who flicks it around the corner to Antoine Griezmann.

Griezmann slides the ball into the box where Kylian Mbappe makes a run. Achraf Hakimi holds his PSG teammate back and gives Yassine Bounou enough time to come out and smother the ball before Mbappe can reach it.

France get the ball rolling again for the second half. Morocco have made another change at half-time with Noussair Mazraoui taken off and Yahia Attiat Allah brought on to replace him.