Quick-fire goals from Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele saw France beat Morocco 2-0 in the opening Quarter-Final tie of 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Following a first-half penalty miss, Mbappe fired France ahead in the 60th minute with a clinically curled finish into the right corner.
Mbappe turned playmaker for France’s second goal as he teed up Dembele to bend a low shot into the right corner to secure a third consecutive semi-final appearance at the World Cup.
France will meet the winner of Spain’s Quarter-Final tie against Belgium in the opening semi-final on Tuesday 14 July at AT&T Stadium, Arlington, USA, at 2pm CDT (9pm BST).
Having dominated their matches across the tournament, it was unsurprising that France began on the front foot as Mbappe saw a fourth-minute shot to his near-bottom left corner saved by Yassine Bounou, who then saved Dayot Upamecano’s header from the subsequent corner.
Morocco however are on a 34-match unbeaten run in all competitions and defended well until Noussair Mazraoui dragged down Mbappe on a 25th-minute French counter-attack.
Mbappe stepped up three minutes later with a penalty towards the bottom-right corner, yet his stutter in the run-up allowed Bounou to dive correctly to his left to save the Frenchman’s attempt.
France continued to dominate possession and opportunities but failed to beat Bounou in the remainder of the first half, as Dembele, Desire Doue and Lucas Digne failed to clinically execute chances against a resilient Moroccan defence.
France’s dominance continued in the second half as Doue saw a shot saved and Mbappe fired wide in quick succession.
Morocco’s defence eventually was broken on the hour mark as Mazraoui volleyed a cross clear, but the ball fell to Doue who slipped Mbappe forward to curl into the far-right corner to put France in front.
France eventually made sure of their passage to the last four in the 66th minute as Mbappe broke forward and teed up Dembele to bend a low shot into the bottom right corner via a touch off Bounou’s outstretched left hand.
Morocco struggled to offer much hope of a comeback as their 34-match unbeaten run in all competitions came to an end, whilst France substitute – Jean-Philippe Mateta put a late header wide as Didier Deschamps’ Les Bleus cruised into the semi-finals.
Teams
France: Mike Maignan, Jules Kounde, Dayot Upamecano, William Saliba, Lucas Digne, Manu Kone (Zaire-Emery 71′), Adrien Rabiot, Ousmane Dembele, Michael Olise, Desire Doue (Barcola 77′), Kylian Mbappe (Mateta 77′)
Substitutes: Maghnes Akliouche, Bradley Barcola, Rayan Cherki, Malo Gusto, Lucas Hernandez, Theo Hernandez, N’Golo Kante, Ibrahima Konate, Maxence Lacroix, Jean-Phillipe Mateta, Robin Risser, Brice Samba, Aurelien Tchouameni, Marcus Thuram, Warren Zaire-Emery
Morocco: Yassine Bounou, Achraf Hakimi, Issa Diop, Noussair Mazraoui, Anass Salah-Eddine (Ouahdi 74′), Ayyoub Bouaddi (Amrabat 62′), Neil El Aynaoui, Chemsdine Talbi (Sbai 85′), Azzedine Ounahi, Bilal El Khannouss (Rahimi 62′), Brahim Diaz (Yassine 74′)
Substitutes: Ayoube Amaimouni, Sofyan Amrabat, Youssef Belammari, Ayoub El Kaabi, Samir El Mourabet, Zakaria El Ouahdi, Redouane Halhal, Munir Mohamedi, Soufiane Rahimi, Chadi Riad, Marwane Saadane, Ismael Saibari, Amine Sbai, Ahmed Reda Tagnaouti, Gessime Yassine
Referee – Facundo Tello
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