When France plays Morocco on Thursday in Boston, it will be the next chapter in what has become a dramatic subplot of these World Cup tournaments: a postcolonial clash, laden with history, symbolism and a dash of score settling.

The two countries are intertwined by colonial dominion — Morocco was a protectorate of France from 1912 to 1956 — and then by waves of emigration across the Mediterranean Sea in the 1960s and 1970s. About 1.5 million people of Moroccan descent, most Muslim, now live in France. Many have thrived, but others have struggled to carve out an identity amid questioning of their Frenchness by the far right and other nationalists. All of that sharpens a soccer rivalry as fierce as any in the world.

Morocco’s team, undefeated in 34 games, will be hungry to avenge its 2-0 loss in the World Cup semifinals in 2022 to France, which is the favorite to win this year’s tournament. Clashes after that game led to scores of arrests in Paris, and the authorities are girding for more unrest, regardless of who wins on Thursday. France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said security in the capital would be reinforced.

Excitement over the rematch between the Atlas Lions of Morocco and Les Bleus of France, as the teams are known, is sky-high. Moroccan and French flags ripple from cars and drape from windows across Paris. Starting on Thursday, the city said, it will allow restaurants and bars to keep outdoor terraces open until 2 a.m. to accommodate crowds watching World Cup games.

For some French Moroccans, there is a double sense of pride at the success of their two homelands, said Yassine El Yattioui, a French Moroccan professor of international relations at the University of Salamanca in Spain.