By Charles Maduka
Kylian Mbappé overcame a first-half penalty miss to inspire France to a 2-0 victory over Morocco at Boston Stadium on Thursday, scoring one goal and providing an assist to send Les Bleus into the semi-finals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
France dominated the opening stages and nearly took the lead when Mbappé’s powerful long-range effort was pushed away by Yassine Bounou before the Moroccan goalkeeper denied Dayot Upamecano’s header from the resulting corner.
The breakthrough appeared to arrive in the 25th minute after Noussair Mazraoui brought down Mbappé inside the penalty area. However, following a delay of more than three minutes before the spot-kick was taken, Bounou guessed correctly to save Mbappé’s weak effort.
France continued to create chances before the break, with Bounou making another fine save to deny Desire Doue, while Lucas Digne rattled the crossbar with a powerful strike from long range.
Morocco’s resistance was finally broken in the 60th minute when Doue threaded a pass through the defence for Mbappé, who curled a superb effort into the far corner to give France a deserved lead.
Six minutes later, Mbappé turned provider as he laid the ball into the path of Ousmane Dembele, who fired home despite Bounou getting a hand to the shot, doubling France’s advantage.
Mbappé was substituted later in the match after appearing to suffer an ankle knock. Although he was seen applying ice to his ankle on the bench, the substitution appeared to be precautionary as he joined his teammates in the post-match celebrations.
Morocco pushed for a way back into the game in the closing stages, but Neil El Aynaoui headed wide before Bradley Barcola came close to adding a third goal for France.
The victory sends France into the World Cup semi-finals, where they will face either Spain or Belgium.
Despite missing from the penalty spot, Mbappé enjoyed another historic outing. His goal took his tally to eight at the 2026 World Cup, drawing him level with Lionel Messi in the race for the Golden Boot and moving him to 20 career World Cup goals, just one behind Messi’s all-time record of 21.
Mbappé also became the first player in World Cup history to record 10 or more goal involvements at multiple editions of the tournament, having registered eight goals and three assists at this year’s competition after contributing eight goals and two assists in 2022.
For Morocco goalkeeper Bounou, the penalty save added another milestone to his impressive World Cup record. He has now saved four penalties, including shootouts, more than any goalkeeper since records began in 1966.
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