France recovered from an early penalty miss from Kylian Mbappe to comfortably see off Morocco and set up a World Cup semi-final against either Spain or Belgium in style. Mbappe followed Lionel Messis lead by missing a poor penalty in the first World Cup quarter-final in Boston but responded with a superb goal after the break as Les Bleus march on.The Real Madrid man was made to wait over three minutes after he was tripped in the area and looked unsure in his stuttering run-up.His connection was tame and easily saved by Yassine Bounou to leave the scores goalless at the break.Dayot Upamecano had gone close with a header and Lucas Digne clipped the crossbar with a dipping shot from range as Morocco camped in.Last African side standing Morocco were unbeaten in 34 games while France were looking to reach at least the semi-finals for a third straight World Cup.Didier Deschamps side, champions in 2018 and runners-up in Qatar, were struggling to find a way through the massed ranks of the African side.But they possess so much quality it felt like a matter of time.And Mbappe did find the breakthrough to score his eighth of this World Cup and a 20th World Cup goal overall in style on the hour mark.Receiving the ball in trademark style on the left hand side of the area, the former PSG forward arced in a wonderful dipping shot which gave the goalkeeper no chance.Moments later Mbappe was involved again in laying the ball of to Dembele, the PSG man racing into newly-earned space and beating Bounou from range.Mbappe left the pitch with 15 minutes to go after taking a knock but looked fairly untroubled. He is the first player to be involved in 11 goals (8 goals, 3 assists) in a single World Cup since Gerd Mller in 1970 (10 goals, 3 assists).He is one goal behind Messi on the all-time list and with plenty of years on his side will surely break that and many more records.Scoring in a third straight final will be on his sights but first France must face Spain or Belgium in Dallas on Tuesday evening. Topics France National Football Team Kylian Mbapp Morocco National Football Team Ousmane Dembele Add us as a preferred source on Google If you enjoy reading this article, you can help support our independent football journalism by adding 101 Great Goals as a preferred source You Should Also Read Mbappe misses penalty as France stutter against Morocco Tom Rostance 9th July, 2026 LIVE France v Morocco: Commentary, updates, goals and stats as Mbappe looks to shoot down African champions Jon Fisher 9th July, 2026 France v Morocco: Line-ups confirmed for opening World Cup quarter final Tom Rostance 9th July, 2026 France v Morocco: World Cup 2026 line-ups, stats and preview, TV channel, live online stream and prediction Jon Fisher 9th July, 2026 World Cup 2026: Quarter-final predictions with Mbappe, Messi, Yamal and Haaland hoping to fire their teams to the last four Jon Fisher 9th July, 2026 World Cup final half-time show: Justin Bieber to play as performers lineup confirmed by FIFA Cian Cheesbrough 8th July, 2026
