France cruise into semi-finals - could this be the best Les Bleus ever?

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By Ahmad Ali, Sports Editor

France did not so much reach the World Cup semi-finals as glide into them. A ruthless 3-0 dismantling of Morocco in the last eight — Kylian Mbappé with two, Warren Zaïre-Emery with the third — extended Les Bleus’ record at this tournament to five wins from five, 14 goals scored and just one conceded. On this evidence, the question that has followed Didier Deschamps’ side since the group stage now demands a serious answer: is this the finest French team ever assembled?

It is a bold claim for a nation that has won two World Cups and reached three of the last four finals. But the manner of France’s progress — the balance of youth and steel, the depth on the bench, the sheer inevitability of it all — invites the comparison. Few teams arrive at the semi-final stage looking this untroubled.

A performance of ruthless control

Against a Morocco side that had eliminated two former champions on its own run, France barely broke sweat. Mbappé opened the scoring inside 12 minutes, gliding past Achraf Hakimi before finishing low into the corner, and doubled the lead from the penalty spot shortly after the interval. Zaïre-Emery, the 20-year-old Paris Saint-Germain midfielder, capped the win with a composed side-footed finish that belied his years.

The statistics tell the story of dominance: 63% possession, 21 shots to Morocco’s four, and a defensive line marshalled by William Saliba and Dayot Upamecano that has now kept four clean sheets in five matches. Mike Maignan, so often a spectator, was called into meaningful action only twice.

What has impressed most is the control. Where previous French teams have relied on moments of individual brilliance to rescue tight games, this side suffocates opponents. Aurélien Tchouaméni and Zaïre-Emery have given Deschamps a midfield that dictates tempo rather than merely reacts to it — a subtle but significant evolution.

How this side compares to the greats

The debate over France’s best-ever team inevitably begins with 1998. That squad, driven by Zinédine Zidane and anchored by Marcel Desailly and Lilian Thuram, won a home World Cup and followed it with the European Championship two years later. The 2018 vintage, lifted by a teenage Mbappé and the defensive excellence of Raphaël Varane and N’Golo Kanté, claimed a second star in Russia.

Where the current group may hold an edge is depth. Deschamps can call upon match-winners from the bench in a way his predecessors could not, and the average age of the starting XI suggests this is a team entering its prime rather than departing it. Consider the spine:

Attack: Mbappé, now the tournament’s leading scorer, operating with a freedom and maturity beyond his previous campaigns.
Midfield: Tchouaméni and Zaïre-Emery offering both destruction and creation, with Eduardo Camavinga in reserve.
Defence: Saliba and Upamecano forming arguably the most assured centre-back pairing France has fielded since Thuram and Desailly.

Yet history counsels caution. The 1998 and 2018 teams are judged great because they won. Reaching a semi-final, however imperiously, guarantees nothing. Greatness in tournament football is conferred by the final scoreline, not the underlying numbers — a truth Deschamps, a World Cup winner as both player and manager, understands better than anyone.

What it means going forward

France now stand two matches from a third star and a place in the pantheon. Their semi-final opponent will emerge from the other half of the draw, but whoever it is will face a team carrying no obvious weakness and considerable momentum. The bookmakers have installed Les Bleus as clear favourites, and it is hard to argue with them.

The greater threat may be internal. France’s history is littered with squads that arrived at tournaments as favourites only to fracture under the weight of expectation — the memory of 2010’s implosion in South Africa has never fully faded. Deschamps’ great strength has always been man-management, keeping egos aligned and focus intact. That skill will be tested again as the noise around this group grows louder.

For now, though, the sober assessment is this: France look imperious, balanced and frighteningly deep, with the best player at the tournament operating at his peak. Whether they finish as the greatest Les Bleus of all time will be settled in the days ahead. But if they lift the trophy playing as they have, the argument will be difficult to resist — and the class of 1998 and 2018 may finally have company at the summit of French football.

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