Women's World Cup 2023: Top Storylines, Updated Bracket for Round of 16 | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Morocco enters Tuesday's match with France already having accomplished a feat no one expected them to: advancing to the knockout stage of the World Cup in their first appearance.

They were also the first Arab or North African team to even qualify for the World Cup, let alone advance to the round of 16.

Their improbably run is an inspirational one and something young women in Morocco and its surrounding countries will use to fuel their futures in the sport, an accomplishment in and of itself that is as meaningful as actually winning the World Cup.

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This is the moment Morocco's players found out they were advancing to the next round of the Women's World Cup.<br><br>They're the first Arab or North African team to make it this far.<br><br>Their joy is everything ❤️⚽<a href="">

The team will struggle mightily to make it to the quarterfinals, though, as France is a top-five team and one that has put up eight goals in three matches and looked every bit their world ranking thus far.

That does not mean the superior team, at least on paper, is taking its opponent lightly.

"We are favorites and we won't hide from it, we came here with a lot of ambition, and that won't change because we play Morocco. We approach every game the same way, we want to win. We have more experience than Morocco in this kind of tournament, it is their first World Cup, their first round of 16. So it is up to us to bring the best from ourselves to win this match," France's leading scorer Eugenie Le Sommer said of Tuesday's match.

The ambition could be the difference in the match, but not in a positive way.

Les Bleus know there are lofty expectations for them in this tournament and will play with that in mind. The Atlas Lions have played looser, freer, knowing that there were zero expectations of them outside of their locker room.

They do not know pressure. They do not feed off the idea of presupposition. They just play the game and have been able to turn that into one of the great underdog stories of this World Cup.

That has been an attribute to the team to this point.

Whether it remains that way, or even matters against a team as purely talented as France, remains to be seen.