World Cup 2026: Mbappe bounces back from penalty miss as France sink Morocco to reach semi-finals

France have advanced to the last four of the ongoing FIFA World Cup after securing a convincing 2-0 victory over an enterprising Morocco side on Thursday.

Kylian Mbappe bagged his eighth goal of the tournament to make up for an earlier missed penalty in the first half, as Les Bleus proved too strong for the Atlas Lions.

Mbappe won the penalty for his side after being brought down in the box by defender Noussair Mazraoui. However, his poorly taken spot kick was superbly saved by Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou.

The Real Madrid striker rewrote the script, opening the scoring in the 60th minute with an amazing curling effort from just inside the penalty area to hand France a deserved lead, having gone close on several earlier attempts.

Ballon d’Or holder Ousmane Dembele doubled France’s lead six minutes later, finding the net with a low strike after cutting through the Morocco defence. Bounou got a hand to the ball, but it wasn’t enough to keep it out of the net.

Mbappe’s goal sees him draw level with Lionel Messi in the scoring standings, and the Frenchman now finds himself ahead in the Golden Boot race, having provided more assists than his former PSG teammate so far.

The two are also engaged in a thrilling race to become the World Cup’s all-time top scorer, with 27-year-old Mbappe now on 20 goals compared to the record 21 held by 39-year-old Messi.

France will now play either Spain or Belgium in the semi-final in Dallas on Tuesday (20:00 BST). The two-time winners lost to Argentina on penalties in the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar and will be hoping to reach the final for a second consecutive time.