France bring Morocco’s adventure to an end and reach World Cup final

And yet the broad brushstroke details did not take in how Morocco made France sweat, how they played with their chests out and not a hint of any inferiority complex. The African team - the first from the continent to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup - had long since left that behind on their epic run past Belgium at the group phase, and Spain and Portugal in the knockout rounds.

Walid Regragui's Atlas Lions made a mockery of snooty European claims that they were overly defensive by playing on the front foot, probing and creating chances. It was an occasion to thrill their fans here and back at home. And when the men in red crumpled to the turf when it was all over, they did so having left everything out there.

The 200-1 shots at the start of the tournament had only ever won two ties previously at this level. They had created miracles but this would be a step too far, a knockout for the band of brothers that Regragui had likened to Rocky Balboa. As France celebrated, the applause for the beaten team rang out loudly.

The atmosphere was pulsating from the start. The shrill whistles from the Morocco fans were first heard precisely 90 minutes before kick-off when Deschamps and his assistants came out for wander. Hilariously, when the French element of the shouty pre-match crowd whip-up troupe started doing her thing, she was unceremoniously drowned out. There is a God. And, at that point, there were hardly any Morocco supporters inside the ground.

The noise when they were all in, the red shirts everywhere, was powerful. This was history, a pay-back for the passion and massive investment in Moroccan football by King Mohammed VI and the national federation. Everybody wanted to live it to the full.

Morocco carried the physical fight, they enjoyed plenty of possession and their supporters saw enough to cheer them before half-time.

Especially when El Yamiq launched into an overhead kick in stoppage time after Giroud had half-cleared a corner, sending the ball towards the bottom left. Hugo Lloris got across to tip it onto the post. Earlier the goalkeeper had sprung the other way to push away an Azzedine Ounahi curler.

It felt as though the equaliser could be coming. After a France replacement, Marcus Thuram, missed a header, Morocco sprang forward through another of their changes, Abderrazak Hamdallah.

Was this the moment? No. He jinked but could not find the room to unload.