{"id":519357,"date":"2026-07-10T14:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/519357\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T14:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:34:12","slug":"france-beat-morocco-2-0-to-reach-world-cup-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/519357\/","title":{"rendered":"France beat Morocco 2-0 to reach World Cup semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 had a goal and an assist after missing a first-half penalty kick, Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 scored the other goal and France beat Morocco 2-0 Friday in the World Cup quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Les Bleus will face either Spain or Belgium in the semifinals in Dallas on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Mbapp\u00e9’s goal in the 60th minute was the 20th of his World Cup career, moving him one behind Argentina captain Lionel Messi. Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 scored his fifth goal of the tournament in the 66th.<\/p>\n

France beat Morocco by the same score in the semifinals of the 2022 tournament in Qatar when the Atlas Lions became the first African team to make it that far. France now remains on track to become only the third nation to play in the final of three consecutive World Cups.<\/p>\n

France held a 21-4 advantage in shots on goal and 8-1 edge in shots on target for the game.<\/p>\n

France’s second goal came after Mbapp\u00e9 took a pass and tapped it back for Demb\u00e9l\u00e9. Mbapp\u00e9 kept running forward and took defenders with him, opening space for Demb\u00e9l\u00e9’s shot.<\/p>\n

Watch Mbapp\u00e9’s awful penalty after confusing delays on TVNZ+<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Morocco<\/p>\n

Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou (1) reaches for the ball during the World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between France and Morocco. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Mbapp\u00e9 had the first shot on goal of the game, just missing wide right in the fourth minute. Then, in the 25th, he was running up the left side when he was chopped down in the box by Morocco defender Noussair Mazraoui. Referee Facundo Tello quickly pointed to the penalty spot.<\/p>\n

Mbapp\u00e9 lined up waiting for his attempt but was held up by a lengthy video review. He was finally cleared to shoot in the 28th minute, but after a hesitation, Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s shot toward the right corner was corralled by goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, who guessed the direction of the shot correctly.<\/p>\n

Mbapp\u00e9 made his only other penalty attempt at this year’s World Cup in France\u2019s 1-0 victory over Paraguay in the round of 16.<\/p>\n

Still, France was by far the more active team offensively in the first half, holding a 13-1 advantage in shots on goal.<\/p>\n

Morocco\u2019s best opportunity came just before the halftime whistle when Achraf Hakimi sent a free kick from just outside the box past the right post.<\/p>\n

Watch the FIFA World Cup final and halftime show live and free at 7am on July 20 on TVNZ+<\/a> and TVNZ 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 had a goal and an assist after missing a first-half penalty kick, Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 scored the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2966,42,43,64,40,38,41,39,1745],"class_list":["post-519357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}