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Morocco coach Walid Regragui has hardly put a foot wrong in his team's dream World Cup run but he might come to regret the risk he took on fielding injured players, then seeing them forced off in the 2-0 semi-final defeat by France.
Nayef Aguerd was named in the starting line up but dropped out during the warm-up, while fellow centre-back and skipper Romain Saiss was forced off after 20 minutes after being exposed when unable to cover a routine long ball.
Full-back Noussair Mazraoui joined them on the sidelines at halftime, with France 1-0 up through Theo Hernandez from the fifth minute.
All three had been injury doubts ahead of the match.
Regragui's re-arranged team battled back strongly to put the holders under pressure until substitute Randal Kolo Muani's 79th-minute goal ended the contest.
It was only the third goal conceded by Morocco at the tournament, the only other outside the France match an own goal during the group stage against Canada.
"We gave the maximum, that's the most important," Regragui said.
"We had some injuries, we lost Aguerd in the warm-up, Saiss, Mazraoui at halftime. We paid for the slightest mistake ... but there are no excuses.
"We didn't get into the game well, we had too much technical waste in the first half, and the second goal kills us, but that doesn't take away everything we did before."
Regragui said he changed his tactics defensively to try to deal with the speed of France's wingers, and it largely paid off until Kylian Mbappe delivered a weaving late slalom through the defence to set up the winner.
Having become the first African team into the semis, Morocco now face Croatia in the third-place play-off on Saturday (2am Sunday AEDT).
"It will be difficult on the mental level," Regragui said.
"I will give opportunities to those who did not participate, and we will try to clinch the third place.
"The important thing is that we presented a good look to our team, and that soccer in Morocco is not far from the top levels."
