France knocks out Morocco and advances to the World Cup semifinals

Determined that the 2026 World Cup be named after him, Kylian Mbappé led France to the semifinals by opening the scoring in Thursday’s 2-0 victory over Morocco in Foxborough, near Boston.

After missing a penalty, saved by Yassine Bounou (28'), the French captain scored a spectacular goal in the 60th minute that broke the deadlock in a comfortable match for the heavy favorites to win the title.

Mbappé, 27, tied Lionel Messi as the tournament’s leading scorer with eight goals. He is one goal behind the Argentine star (21 goals) on the all-time scoring list.

Ousmane Dembélé extended the lead six minutes later with a shot from outside the box that sealed the fate of the Atlas Lions, a team that in recent years has taken on the role of a leading player in the world of soccer and which, in the last two World Cups, fell to the French in the semifinals and quarterfinals.

In pursuit of its third star, France will play in the semifinal on Tuesday in Dallas against Spain or Belgium, who face off on Friday in Los Angeles.

"Monsieur" the penalty-stopper

Mbappé overcame a formidable opponent on the field at Gillette Stadium, where distinguished guests in the stands included former French international Antoine Griezmann and singer Shakira. 

It was the goalkeeper for the last remaining African team, Yassine Bounou, a man who cemented his legend as a great goalkeeper at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The former Sevilla goalkeeper made two crucial saves in the first five minutes of the game, played under a blazing sun just outside the capital of Massachusetts.

First, he dove to his lower-right corner to deflect Mbappé's shot from outside the box into a corner kick, and immediately afterward, on the corner kick resulting from that save, he tipped a header by Dayot Upamecano off the line. 

His finest moment, however, would come nearly a half-hour into the match. On a counterattack, following a turnover by Achraf Hakimi, Noussair Mazraoui needlessly brought down French captain Mbappé inside the box, conceding a penalty to the French national team.

After several seconds waiting for the go-ahead from Argentine referee Facundo Tello, the Real Madrid star gently placed the penalty low to his right, and Bono stretched out to make the save, further cementing his reputation as a penalty-saving legend.

The lanky Moroccan goalkeeper, standing 6.3 feet tall, has successfully saved seven of the nine penalty kicks he has faced in World Cups, including shootouts. 

Kylian’s revenge

His diving save thwarted what looked like a certain goal for the Bleus, who controlled the ball for much of the match and created plenty of scoring opportunities. However, neither Michael Olise nor Désiré Doué nor Dembélé nor Mbappé were on target in the first half.

Bono then thwarted attempts by Doué (35', 55'), Lucas Digne (45+1'), with a shot that grazed the goalkeeper's hand and hit the crossbar, Bradley Barcola (85'), and Jean-Philippe Mateta (90+4').

The Moroccan attack, decimated by the injury to top scorer Ismael Saibari, could not match the performance of their goalkeeper, as they only threatened Mike Maignan’s goal once before halftime, with a deflected shot by Hakimi.

Until the 60-minute mark, Mohamed Ouahbi’s team lacked a focal point in the center of the attack and was easy prey for the superb Upamecano, arguably the best center-back of the tournament.

The lack of punch proved fatal for the Lions, who were seeking revenge in Foxborough after falling 2-0 to the French in the Qatar semifinal, in what was the best performance by an African national team at the World Cup.

Eager for redemption after missing his first World Cup penalty, Mbappé made up for the blunder from the spot and finally beat Bono with a beautiful shot from the edge of the box.

Any hope of a Moroccan comeback was dashed very early on.

Dembélé snapped out of his slump and, with a low shot from the edge of the box, scored his fifth goal of the tournament and secured his country’s third consecutive World Cup semifinal berth.

With information from AFP