France beats Morocco 2-0 to reach World Cup semifinal as Mbappe overcomes penalty miss

Missed penalty, then redemption

France controlled the opening stages and thought they had a breakthrough when Noussair Mazraoui fouled Kylian Mbappe in the box. After a VAR review, the referee pointed to the spot in the 25th minute. Mbappe stepped up himself, but Yassine Bounou dived correctly to keep the match scoreless. The miss did not rattle the French captain. In the 60th minute, he collected a pass from Desire Doue outside the area, waited for Issa Diop to commit, and drove a precise shot into the far corner for his eighth goal of the tournament. Six minutes later, Mbappe turned provider, slipping a pass to Ousmane Dembele who finished low past Bounou to make it 2-0.

French dominance from the start

Didier Deschamps' side imposed themselves early. Mbappe fired wide in the 4th minute, Dayot Upamecano forced a sharp save from Bounou after a corner, and Doue saw a close-range effort denied. Lucas Digne rattled the crossbar from distance in first-half stoppage time. Morocco struggled to build sustained attacks, with Brahim Diaz's blocked shot and Achraf Hakimi's wayward free-kick their best moments before the break. The match was played in 40-degree heat in Boston, yet France maintained a high tempo throughout.

It will be a clash of teams that love to possess the ball, attack and score goals. We will have to play our best because the Moroccans are in very good form.

Morocco's resistance and history

Morocco arrived as the fourth-place finishers from the 2022 World Cup and the first African side to reach a semifinal. They had eliminated the Netherlands on penalties and beaten Canada 3-0 in the round of 16. Bounou kept them in the contest with a string of saves, but the Atlas Lions could not reproduce the counter-attacking threat that defined their earlier run. Ayyoub Bouaddi, the 18-year-old midfielder praised as a "football genius" by pundits, was replaced just after the hour mark as Deschamps' midfield pairing of Manu Kone and Adrien Rabiot took control.

Semifinal path and Mbappe concern

France became the first team to book a place in the last four. They will face the winner of Spain versus Belgium, scheduled for 10 July in Los Angeles. The other side of the bracket features Norway against England and Argentina against Switzerland or Colombia. Mbappe was substituted in the 77th minute with an apparent knock, a worry for a side chasing a third world title. Deschamps, who is stepping down after the tournament, now has his team two wins away from adding to the 2018 crown.