FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Kylian Mbappe scored his eighth goal of this World Cup and the 20th of his tournament career after halftime, but exited before full time in a potential injury scare in France’s 2-0 quarterfinal victory over Morocco on Thursday.
Mbappe exited in the 77th minute after he had been on the ground for a few minutes. But he walked off under his own power and without a limp, and waved with two arms to the crowd in a familiar manner, suggesting whatever had occurred just before wasn’t serious.
Ousmane Dembele followed Mbappe with his fifth of the tournament to lift France to their third consecutive semifinal. Les Bleus will next play on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas, against the winner of Friday’s quarterfinal between Spain and Belgium.
Morocco were shut out for the first time this tournament and eliminated by France for a second consecutive World Cup, having also lost 2-0 in the 2022 semifinals. They’re the last African team to exit after nine of 10 qualifiers reached the knockout phase, but only two advanced past the round of 32.
Playing without injured forward Ismael Saibari, the Atlas Lions were second-best for most of the afternoon, only finally forcing France goalkeeper Mike Maignan into a save from Azzedine Ounahi’s effort from distance in the 83rd minute.
Mbappe’s 60th-minute strike from the left side of the penalty arc tied him with Argentina’s Lionel Messi for the tournament Golden Boot lead, and he’s one behind the 39-year-old for the all-time World Cup record.
It came on what had been a frustrating encounter for the 27-year-old to that point, having seen his poorly struck first-half penalty saved by Yassine Bounou.
But after finding himself as the recipient of a deflected ball at the top of the 18, he curled a right-footed effort around defender Issa Diop and narrowly inside Bounou’s left post.
Dembele doubled the lead six minutes later on a counterattack as Morocco had no choice but to try and send numbers forward.
This time it was Mbappe making a run into the left side of the penalty area to clear space. Instead, Dembele unleashed his own right-footed shot from about 20 yards out, and while Bounou got a hand to it, he could not keep it from nestling in the bottom right corner.
–Ian Nicholas Quillen, Field Level Media
