I pulled the microphone 2 inches closer.
"It was my call."
You could hear it land. There is a noise 400 people make when they were expecting French.
"I sent them," I said. "Benatia, Saïss, Dirar. I stood on that line and I waved them up for a corner in the 91st minute of a World Cup final, and I left 70 yards of grass behind them with Kylian Mbappé stood in the middle of it.
"And before anybody prints that I did not see it coming. I told that dressing room at half time it would happen. Out loud. So that no man in the room could say afterwards that he had not been warned."
Somebody down the row said something in French. I did not look at him.
"A draw was worth nothing to me," I said. "I wanted to win a World Cup. So I traded that grass, and 52 seconds later it was 4-3.
"If you are looking for the reason Morocco are not champions of the world tonight, it is stood in front of you in a wet suit. It is not one of those players.
"Any of them. Not one."
