Francevs
MoroccoFor an hour, Morocco looked like they might do it again. They had the ball more than France — 52 percent to 48 — they were organized, disciplined, and making life uncomfortable for a French attack that couldn't find the final pass. Then Kylian Mbappé got the ball in the 60th minute, and the whole thing unraveled in the space of six minutes.
Mbappé finished off an assist from Désiré Doué to break the deadlock, and the goal landed on Morocco like a weight. Issa Diop picked up a yellow card three minutes later — the tension finally spilling over — and before the Atlas Lions could reset, Ousmane Dembélé made it two. Mbappé turned provider this time, threading the pass that Dembélé converted in the 66th minute. Cabal, that was the match right there: two goals, six minutes, and Morocco had nothing left to answer with.
The numbers from the first half told a story of Moroccan patience and French frustration. Morocco finished the game with 524 passes at 90 percent accuracy, France with 485 at the same rate. Five corners apiece. Morocco held the shape and forced France wide, limiting them to moments rather than sustained pressure. The one area where the gap was stark: France put 22 shots on the board to Morocco's five, and eight of those were on target against just one for the Atlas Lions. Morocco's goalkeeper was busy — six saves on the night — while France needed only one.
That shot count tells you France were always the more dangerous team, even when they weren't the more comfortable one. Our pre-match read made France the favorite at 59 percent, and the result held exactly to that script.
The Turning Point
El chispudo de Mbappé, always finding that moment when a game needs one. Morocco had contained him for nearly an hour — which is an achievement in itself — but the moment Doué slipped him the pass in the 60th, there was only one outcome. The second goal from Dembélé was almost the crueler one: Morocco had just absorbed the first blow and were trying to reorganize when France struck again immediately. By the time Diop's booking registered, the Atlas Lions were already chasing a game they had no tools to chase.
Morocco committed 13 fouls to France's 10 — small numbers, but they reflect a side that spent the second half fighting for every inch and coming up short. France, for their part, were ruthless when the moment came, even if they needed patience to find it.
What Comes Next
France's five-match winning run at this tournament now stretches into the final, and they will feel good about how this was managed. They didn't panic when Morocco controlled possession, trusted their structure, and let quality decide it. Mbappé has now been involved in both goals of a World Cup semifinal — scorer and creator — and that kind of form at this stage of a tournament is the thing nightmares are made of for whoever faces them next.
For Morocco, the question is simply whether reaching a second consecutive World Cup semifinal feels like progress or like a ceiling. Given where they started, it probably feels like both.
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