{"id":791804,"date":"2026-07-10T01:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T01:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/791804\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T01:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T01:53:12","slug":"mbappe-and-dembele-net-as-france-beat-morocco-to-reach-world-cup-semifinal-world-cup-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/791804\/","title":{"rendered":"Mbappe and Dembele net as France beat Morocco to reach World Cup semifinal | World Cup 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"post-label__link\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" aria-label=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/fifa-world-cup-2026\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"post-label__image\" height=\"22.5\" width=\"222.75\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783648392_575_Post-Label-Image-Option-1-1780213226.png\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"World Cup 2026 post label\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"article__subhead\">France beat Morocco 2-0 in quarterfinals at FIFA World Cup 2026 and will meet Spain or Belgium next.<\/p>\n<p>Published On 9 Jul 20269 Jul 2026<\/p>\n<p>Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele were on target as France surged past Morocco<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/liveblog\/2026\/7\/9\/live-france-vs-morocco-fifa-world-cup-2026-quarterfinal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> 2-0<\/a> to book their place in the World Cup semifinals.<\/p>\n<p>Mbappe curled in his eighth goal of the tournament on 60 minutes on Thursday before Dembele doubled Les Bleus\u2019 lead six minutes later to settle a clinical victory at the Gillette Stadium outside Boston.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n<p>The win sends the 2018 champions into a last-four showdown against either Spain or Belgium in Arlington, Texas on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>African champions Morocco had been tipped to pose a serious threat to France\u2019s hopes of reaching a third consecutive World Cup final.<\/p>\n<p>But Didier Deschamps\u2019 men were always in control against a limited Morocco side who failed to register a single shot on goal until an 83rd-minute free-kick by Azzedine Ounahi was parried away by France goalkeeper Mike Maignan.<\/p>\n<p>France, though, struggled to find a breakthrough, and missed the opportunity to take the lead on 28 minutes when Mbappe saw a penalty saved by Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou.<\/p>\n<p>Mbappe had won the penalty after being brought down by Noussair Mazraoui but was forced to wait several minutes before being allowed to take the kick after a protracted VAR check.<\/p>\n<p>Morocco managed to hold out to half-time, but it was always only a matter of time before France\u2019s relentless pressure paid off.<\/p>\n<p>The breakthrough came on the hour mark, with Mbappe bending a brilliant right-foot shot past Bounou from the edge of the area.<\/p>\n<p>Paris Saint-Germain star Dembele made the game safe in the 66th minute, striding forward menacingly from midfield before steering a low finish into the bottom corner.<\/p>\n<p>France now await the winner of Friday\u2019s quarterfinal in Los Angeles between European champions Spain and Belgium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France beat Morocco 2-0 in quarterfinals at FIFA World Cup 2026 and will meet Spain or Belgium next.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3456,637,43,1259,21130,44,457,41,39,42,40,772,1690,13010],"class_list":["post-791804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-morocco","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}