Dembele’s relief before headache

French winger Ousmane Dembele was one of the luckiest men in the world on Wednesday. While his team made it to the final of Qatar 2022, he had come away from the match against Morocco without making any meaningful contribution. Why is the latter a good thing, you ask? It is because Dembele's wife, and TikTok star, Rima Edbouche is from Morocco. 

Anyone who is or has been married will fully commiserate with Ousmane's dilemma: you never want to be hung with the blame for booting your in-laws out of a World Cup and, at the same time, you never want to exit the World Cup yourself.  

After the latest performance, Dembele can honestly absolve himself of any role in Morocco's depressing fate before he celebrated his own country's good fortune. A masterful example of cutting the cake and having it too, if ever there was one. 

It is with a heavy heart that we bid farewell to the Atlas Lions. These guys did not just come to pull off upsets, they set up to win the whole damned thing. The way Achraf Hakimi, Sofyan Amrabat, their defence and midfield in general, combined to play out of the back is the stuff of dreams. It was football of the highest quality, befitting any team that has ever played on the biggest stage, but until the final third. 

There was some bad luck to be sure, but Morocco lacked the edge where it mattered the most. And we, the football lovers, were left poorer for it. I do hope though that they continue this amazing run. I think the time is ripe for a champion to emerge from outside Europe and South America. 

What Morocco was lacking, France possess in copious amounts: the ability to score. And their impressive arsenal is about to be bolstered by the return of one Karim Benzema who, in case you forgot, is the reigning Ballon d'Or winner.

One could be reasonably sceptical about how well Benzema can suddenly fit into a team that has enough rhythm to make it all the way with even ease. One could rightfully ask whether Benzema should even be in the starting eleven. Do you retain the team that is playing well, or do you play one of the most fearsome strikers in the world? It is a problem of riches that could potentially give Didier Deschamps a monster of a headache. 

But for one Ousmane Dembele as well, who as I previously said was the luckiest man in the world on Wednesday, who could find himself warming a balmy Qatari bench on the eighteenth. But one can't always win, whether in life or in football.