France is one win from a third straight World Cup final after beating Morocco 2-0 in Thursday’s quarterfinal at Gillette Stadium. Kylian Mbappé broke the deadlock in the 60th minute, and Ousmane Dembélé doubled the lead six minutes later to send Les Bleus into a semifinal against Spain or Belgium.
The scoreless first half wasn’t short on French chances. Noussair Mazraoui brought down Mbappé in the penalty area in the 25th minute, but Yassine Bounou read the delayed spot kick and saved low to his right in the 28th. It was the best of Bounou’s six saves and kept Morocco level despite France’s steady pressure.
Morocco couldn’t hold that line after halftime. Désiré Doué found Mbappé on the left side of the box, and the France captain drove a right-footed shot into the top-right corner. The decisive burst continued in the 66th minute when Mbappé laid the ball back for Dembélé, then carried defenders forward as Dembélé struck from outside the box into the bottom-right corner.
France finished with a 22-5 advantage in shots and put eight attempts on target to Morocco’s one. Morocco had 51.9 percent of the ball and the corners were even at five, but those numbers couldn’t turn possession into danger. Issa Diop received the game’s only card in the 63rd minute, while France completed the quarterfinal without a booking.
France finds the finish Morocco can’t
Morocco’s route to an upset depended on surviving France’s early volume and turning a limited number of openings into something concrete. That was the narrow path laid out in Stadio’s quarterfinal preview, and Bounou’s penalty save kept it open through halftime. Achraf Hakimi sent Morocco’s best first-half opportunity wide from a free kick, but the Atlas Lions never forced France goalkeeper Mike Maignan into more than one save.
Mbappé recovered from the missed penalty with the two actions that settled the match. His opener was his 20th World Cup goal, and his pass for Dembélé’s fifth goal of this tournament removed any real chance of a Morocco comeback. After his winning penalty against Paraguay in the previous round, covered in France’s round-of-16 recap, he again supplied the difference in a knockout game.
Morocco exits after another deep World Cup run, four years after becoming the first African nation to reach a semifinal. France advances with another clean sheet and a place in Tuesday’s semifinal in Dallas. It didn’t score before the hour, but once Mbappé found the first opening, France needed only six minutes to close the quarterfinal.
