Mbappé leads France past Morocco into World Cup semifinals

Kylian Mbappé missed a first-half penalty, then broke Morocco’s resistance in the 60th minute to send France past Morocco 2-0 and into the World Cup semifinals in Boston and Foxborough, Massachusetts. Ousmane Dembélé added the second goal six minutes later, another reminder of how quickly France can turn one opening for Mbappé into a match-ending surge.

The win carried the feel of inevitability from the moment France found a way to free its captain in space. Morocco arrived intent on revenge after France’s 2-0 semifinal victory in Qatar in 2022, but the rematch followed the same pattern: Morocco worked to survive long enough to change the game, and France kept producing the clearer chances. ESPN’s match figures showed the difference in pressure and precision, with France finishing on a 3.04 to 0.14 expected-goals edge.

Mbappé’s goal was his eighth of the 2026 tournament, drawing him level with Lionel Messi atop the scoring chart. It also took him to 20 World Cup goals overall, a milestone that underlined how quickly he has moved through the record book while playing in his third World Cup, after 2018 and 2022. Before this match, Mbappé already stood as France’s all-time leading scorer and had appeared in 18 World Cup matches.

The penalty miss in the first half did not slow France’s plan. Mbappé kept pulling defenders with his runs, France kept shifting the ball to open lanes, and Morocco could not close the spaces fast enough to stop the next wave. Once Mbappé scored in the 60th minute, Dembélé’s goal in the 66th minute finished the job and left Morocco with too much ground to recover.

France’s advance sent Didier Deschamps’s side to a third consecutive World Cup semifinal and kept alive its pursuit of a third world title. Morocco, which became the first African team to reach the semifinal stage in 2022, again exited at France’s expense, this time in a tournament where the rivalry had already been framed as a chance to settle the last one. Instead, France made it another showcase for Mbappé’s certainty, and another night when the opponent could not disrupt the pattern long enough to change the outcome.