France 2-0 Morocco: FIFA World Cup 2026 quarterfinal – as it happened

That’s all for our live coverage of France against Morocco at the World Cup.

Les Bleus are in the last four and will find out their semifinal opponents tomorrow as Spain face Belgium in LA.

Join us back here for live coverage of that one, but for now, from me, Adam Hancock and my colleagues, Kevin Hand and Hafsa Adil, it is goodbye.

Look who we have here. The man of the moment, player of the match and the captain: Kylian “dictator” Mbappe himself.

Here’s what he had to say about his performance:

“I played another game. Scored again. Missed a penalty — we don’t talk about that — but we’re in the semifinals now. Where I’ll meet Lamine Yamal and beat his team. Then, we’ll beat Argentina in the final again.”

How many Mbappes does France need? One on the pitch, but there are countless off it.

The captain’s name is emblazoned on the back of every other France shirt I’ve spotted at the stadium.

From babies being carried on shoulders to men with white hair singing “Allez Les Bleus”, Mbappe’s name is everywhere.

And the French are hoping he takes them all the way.

Our match report is now live, with all you’ll ever need to know about France 2-0 Morocco.

You can read it here.

France coach Didier Deschamps has paid tribute to forward Kylian Mbappe after he scored his eighth goal of the World Cup to fire Les Bleus into the semifinals on Thursday.

“When it’s Kylian, there’s no problem – he never doubts himself, even though he had another chance before scoring,” Deschamps said.

“I think that is three consecutive semifinals, so that’s already a good thing,” he added.

“It seems logical and natural, but you still have to achieve it.

“Obviously, I have great players; otherwise we wouldn’t get there, but it’s good. It was complicated because today, after missing the penalty, and with the chances [we had], we didn’t convert.”

Morocco coach Mohamed Ouahbi has been giving his reaction to today’s defeat to France.

“We are very disappointed. We wanted to go on,” he told reporters after the game.

“When we had ball possession, our transitions were not great, and we had to run a little more. Their players were in their comfort zone.”

At one stage in that match, France had 10 shots on goal compared with zero for Morocco.

It felt like the Atlas Lions barely threatened, and the stats back that up.

France (3.34) 2-0 (0.14) Morocco

— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) July 9, 2026

It’s a sea of red as the crowd makes its way out of the stadium.

Some very dejected fans, who came to this match expecting their team to do one better than the class of 2022. Instead, they exit even earlier.

The French captain is usually pretty reliable from the penalty spot, but he suffered a rare blip today as his first-half spot kick was easily saved by Yassine Bounou.

Still, he has a pretty unenviable record from the penalty spot.

Kylian Mbappé career penalties for club and country, excluding shootouts:

80 penalties taken
65 penalties scored
15 penalties missed

His first missed penalty at the World Cup. pic.twitter.com/2T8k92qnFN

— StatMuse FC (@statmusefc) July 9, 2026

11 – 🇫🇷 Kylian Mbappé has been involved in 11 goals at the 2026 World Cup (8 goals, 3 assists).

That's the most by a player in a single edition since 🇩🇪 Gerd Müller in 1970 (10 goals, 3 assists).

Productive. pic.twitter.com/sJ6P4jU2dL

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) July 9, 2026

Some news away from France vs Morocco, and England defender Jarell Quansah has been suspended for two matches following his red card in the team’s World Cup last-16 victory over Mexico, leaving manager Thomas Tuchel short of back-line options for the latter stages of the tournament.

The two-match ban, confirmed on Thursday, means that Quansah will miss England’s quarterfinal against Norway on Saturday in Miami and a potential semifinal should they advance.

Quansah was sent off after a video review determined that he made a sliding studs-up tackle in the round-of-16 match against the cohosts.

Read more here.

We’ll have full live coverage of the next quarterfinal on Friday as Spain face Belgium in Los Angeles.

The game kicks off at midday local time (yikes), which is at 19:00 GMT.

We will bring you all the build-up from 16:00 GMT before starting our full match commentary.

A reminder: The winners of that game will face France in the last four.

The Moroccans are in a huddle with Hakimi and coach Ouhabi in the middle, encouraging the much younger players to hold their heads up high.

Their fans have stayed behind to applaud the players as they walk back into the tunnel, bringing down the curtain on another promising run at the World Cup.

Mbappe is the last French player to walk off the pitch, and he departs to a loud cheer from the remaining French fans, who are still dancing in the aisles at Boston Stadium.

France’s supporters may not have matched their Moroccan counterparts in numbers and noise, but I don’t think any of that matters after this result.

La demi-finale ensuite. Allez la France ! 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/vbaCHAqMlQ

— Olise (@Olise_Q) July 9, 2026

That’s the big question hanging over the closing stages of this tournament.

France look like the best team in the world and have stepped up to every challenge that has been thrown at them during this competition.

They can win games without reaching top gear and appear to have a lot more in reserve for the final few rounds.

They’ll face either Spain or Belgium in the semifinal next week. Can either of those lay a glove on this France team?

A third straight Semi-final secured for France. 🇫🇷#FIFAWorldCup

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) July 9, 2026

𝗘𝗡 𝗗𝗘𝗠𝗜-𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗘 𝗗𝗘 𝗟𝗔 𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗣𝗘 𝗗𝗨 𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗗𝗘 ! 🇫🇷🔥
Nos Bleus battent le Maroc et rejoignent le dernier carré du mondial 😍

🇫🇷 2-0 🇲🇦 | #FRAMAR l #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/YKUgTW3cgt

— Equipe de France ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) July 9, 2026

• Kylian Mbappe – 8 goals, 3 assists
• Lionel Messi – 8 goals, 1 assist
• Erling Haaland – 7 goals, 0 assists
• Harry Kane – 6 goals, 1 assist
• Ousmane Dembele – 5 goals, 2 assists

The last 10 minutes of the match were all France, both on and off the pitch.

For the first time since I entered the stadium, I could hear the “ole, ole, ole” of French fans loud and clear. Before, it was all “Dima Maghreb” (“Always Morocco”).

A roar goes up from the French section of the crowd as the players go up to their end and join in the celebrations.