France End Morocco’s World Cup Dream for the Second Tournament Running

France once again proved too strong for Morocco at the FIFA World Cup, defeating the Atlas Lions 2-0 at Gillette Stadium in Boston to book their place in the semi-finals of the 2026 tournament and bring Morocco’s historic campaign to an end.

Les Bleus repeated the outcome of the 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-final in Qatar, where they also defeated Morocco by the same scoreline. The result further underlined France’s dominance in the fixture, extending their unbeaten record against the North Africans to seven matches, comprising five victories and two draws.

France will now travel to Dallas for next Tuesday’s semi-final, where they will face the winner of the highly anticipated quarter-final between Spain and Belgium.

Kylian Mbappé was once again the driving force behind France’s success, opening the scoring in the 60th minute before providing the assist for Ousmane Dembélé’s second goal just six minutes later, redeeming himself after seeing an earlier penalty saved by Yassine Bounou in the first half.

Mbappé’s goal took his tally to eight at this year’s World Cup, drawing him level with Argentina captain Lionel Messi at the top of the Golden Boot standings. The French forward, however, moves ahead on assists, having registered three compared to Messi’s one. He also moved to within one goal of Messi’s all-time World Cup scoring record, taking his overall tally to 20 goals compared to the Argentine’s 21.

Dembélé also continued his impressive tournament by taking his goal tally to five, underlining his importance in Didier Deschamps’ attacking setup.

France further strengthened their outstanding knockout-stage record by reaching the World Cup semi-finals for the seventh time in nine quarter-final appearances. Morocco, meanwhile, bowed out after another commendable campaign, although their hopes were significantly affected by the absence of leading scorer Ismaël Saibari, who missed the match with a hamstring injury.

Match Highlights

France controlled the contest from the opening whistle, dominating possession and creating the majority of the clear-cut opportunities, while Morocco relied on a disciplined defensive structure and attempted to absorb sustained pressure. However, the Atlas Lions struggled to create meaningful attacking chances.

Mbappé tested Yassine Bounou early with a powerful effort that the Moroccan goalkeeper pushed behind for a corner. Bono then produced another outstanding save to deny Dayot Upamecano’s dangerous header, while Dembélé fired narrowly over the crossbar.

In the 25th minute, France were awarded a penalty after Noussair Mazraoui brought down Mbappé inside the box. Bono once again came to Morocco’s rescue by saving the spot-kick, preserving the deadlock and giving his side a significant psychological lift.

Despite Morocco holding firm until half-time, France resumed their pressure after the interval. Mbappé missed another promising opportunity before finally breaking the deadlock in the 60th minute, collecting a perfectly weighted pass from Désiré Doué and calmly placing his finish into the far corner beyond Bono.

France struck again just six minutes later. Mbappé turned provider with a clever pass into the path of Dembélé, who unleashed an intelligent strike from outside the penalty area that found the back of the net to effectively seal victory.

Morocco attempted to mount a late response, but their first effort on target did not arrive until late in the game, when Azzedine Ounahi forced Mike Maignan into a comfortable save, as France safely saw out the victory to book their place in the last four.