With goals from Mbappé and Dembélé, the favorite France eliminates Morocco and is in the semifinals

In this way, the French team is the first semi-finalist of the FIFA World Cup and is already awaiting a rival between Spain and Belgium, who face each other this Friday in Los Angeles.

Without their top scorer, the injured Ismael Saibari, and without his replacement – Soufiane Rahimi – having convinced Mohamed Ouahbi, Morocco jumped to the Gillette Stadium wanting to emulate the match that Paraguay played against France in the round of 16.

Low block and closed defense to resist without conceding and gain life as the minutes pass. The formula with which the Paraguayans defeated Germany and frustrated France.

The France squad had its chances. The clearest was a penalty caused and taken by Mbappé, which goalkeeper Yassine Bounou stopped just before the hydration break. It was a shot without power, without placement, without feint, inappropriate for the French striker.

The Moroccan goalkeeper already demonstrated his ability from eleven meters in the round of 32 penalty shootout against the Netherlands, blocking two shots.

That penalty was not the only opportunity for the French. While Morocco did not even get close to Mike Maignan’s goal.

In turn, Dayot Upamecano, header; Lucas Digne, with a poisonous shot against the crossbar from outside the area; or Désiré Doué, in a one-on-one with Bounou, came close to overtaking the ‘Bleus’.

At half-time, with 0-0, Morocco had managed to copy the Paraguayan script and obtained the same result.

Mbappé tears down the wall

Morocco began the second half with the same idea: clinging to keeping a clean sheet as long as possible. Playing with fire.

This time it didn’t work. In the 60th minute, Mbappé received a ball in the corner of the area and, surrounded by four Moroccans, found an impossible space for Bounou, removing the thorn of the missed penalty and washing away his mistake for France.

Mbappé’s eighth goal in the World Cup, which equals those of the Argentine Lionel Messi as Golden Boot.

France took advantage of the gap in the Moroccan resistance to score the second six minutes later. It was a blackboard counterattack that Ousmane Dembélé finished with a right foot from outside the area, after passes from Mbappé and Michael Olise. Demolishing.

The Moroccans had to be eliminated to react. They took the lead, with their first shot on target that did not arrive until the 83rd minute, from Azzedine Ounahi, which Mike Maignan took out without difficulty.

Minutes earlier Deschamps had replaced Mbappé, who was seen on the bench with an ice pack on his right ankle.

The game ended with 2-0. Morocco says goodbye after stumbling over the same rock as four years ago. The “Atlas Lions” already went down in history as the first African team to be a semi-finalist in a World Cup and twice in the quarterfinals, but they did not go any further.

This is how they aligned

– France (2): Mike Maignan; Jules Koundé (Bad Gusto, m.87), Dayot Upamecano, William Saliba, Lucas Digne; Manu Koné (Warren Zaïre-Emery, m,71), Adrien Rabiot; Michael Olise, Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué (Bradley Barcola, m.77) and Kylian Mbappé (Jean-Philippe Mateta, m.77).

– Selector: Didier Deschamps.

– Morocco (0): Yassine Bounou; Achraf Hakimi, Issa Diop, Noussair Mazraoui, Anass Salah-Eddine (Zakaria El Ouahdi, d.74); Ayyoub Bouaddi (Sofyan Amrabat, m.61), Azzedine Ounahi, Neil El Aynaoui; Bilal El Khannouss (Soufiane Rahimi, m.61), Chemsdine Talbi (Amine Sbaï, m.85) and Brahim Díaz (Gessime Yassine, m.74).

– Selector: Mohamed Ouahbi.

– Goals: 1-0, m.60: Mbappé; 2-0, m.66: Dembélé.

– Referee: Facundo Tello (Argentina). He admonished the Moroccan Diop.

– Incidents: 2026 World Cup quarter-final tie played at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, near Boston (United States) in front of 63,811 spectators.

(With report from Albert Traver, from EFE)