Mbappé, Dembélé Send France Past Morocco Into Third Straight World Cup Semifinal

France reached their third consecutive World Cup semifinal with a dominant 2-0 win over Morocco, with Kylian Mbappé recovering from a missed first-half penalty to score a goal and set up another in a one-sided quarterfinal.

France dominated the first half territorially, out-shooting Morocco 13-1, but were unable to convert until Mbappé was brought down in the box by Noussair Mazraoui in the 25th minute. After a lengthy VAR review, Mbappé stepped up to take the penalty but saw his effort saved by Yassine Bounou, who guessed the correct direction. Morocco's best chance of the half came right before the break, when captain Achraf Hakimi curled a free-kick just past the post.

The deadlock was finally broken in the 60th minute, when Mbappé curled a superb effort into the far corner to give France the lead. Six minutes later, Mbappé turned provider, slipping a pass into the path of Ousmane Dembélé, who curled a low finish past Bounou to make it 2-0. Morocco pushed for a way back into the match but could not muster a shot on target for the remainder of the game, with France comfortably seeing out the win.

By the Numbers

France finished with a 3.04 expected-goals total to Morocco's 0.14, and out-shot Morocco 21-4 overall with an 8-1 edge in shots on target. Mbappé's goal was his 20th career World Cup goal, one behind Messi's all-time record of 21, and he's now the only player to record 10 or more direct goal involvements at two different World Cups.

What's Next

France advance to face the winner of Spain vs. Belgium in the semifinal on Tuesday, July 14, in Dallas. For Morocco, the tournament ends in the quarterfinals for a second straight edition, matching their historic run to the semifinals in 2022.