Mbappé stars as France beats Morocco to reach World Cup final

Kylian Mbappé missed a penalty, then helped decide France’s World Cup semifinal anyway, turning a night of tension into a 2-0 win over Morocco at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor. Theo Hernandez scored in the fifth minute and Randal Kolo Muani added the second in the 79th, sending France into the final against Argentina.

The result ended Morocco’s run one step short of history. Walid Regragui’s side became the first African and Arab team to reach a World Cup semifinal, and for long stretches it made France work under pressure rather than control the match. France finished with only 39% possession, its lowest figure of the tournament, yet the team found the decisive moments when they mattered most.

Mbappé was central to both. His blocked effort helped create the opener after Antoine Griezmann’s movement opened space, and Hernandez finished the move inside five minutes. Later, Mbappé again burst forward in transition, pulling Morocco’s back line out of shape before the attack ended with Kolo Muani’s close-range finish. The scoreline looked comfortable; the match was not.

Didier Deschamps made the same point after the whistle, saying France had to be effective and acknowledging that Morocco caused many problems. That was the story of the evening in Al Khor. Morocco pressed, recovered, and threatened enough to keep France uneasy, but France’s stars delivered in the critical phases, with Mbappé at the center despite the missed penalty that could have turned the night against him.

The semifinal has remained part of the World Cup’s recent memory because of how thin the margins were. FIFA revisited the match in 2026 and described it as far closer than the 2-0 score suggested, while noting that Mbappé already had two assists in the 2022 tournament. By July 2026, FIFA listed him with 18 World Cup goals and 15 World Cup wins, numbers that reflect how quickly he has moved into the sport’s rarest company since debuting at the World Cup in Russia in 2018 at age 19.

France did not dominate Morocco in Qatar. Mbappé, however, still bent the semifinal toward France, first by absorbing the pressure of a missed penalty and then by helping produce the goals that sent his team through.