France are through to the semi-finals of the World Cup after a commanding victory over Morocco in Boston, with two goals in a six-minute second-half spell proving the difference. Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring before Ballon d’Or holder Ousmane Dembele added a second, taking France’s tournament tally to 16 goals — more than any other side.
Mbappe’s goal was his eighth of the tournament, coming after he had a first-half penalty saved, and moves him level with Argentina’s Lionel Messi as top scorer. The France captain currently leads the Golden Boot race, however, by virtue of having more assists than the Argentine. Dembele now has five goals in the competition, making France only the second side in the past 50 years to have two players score five or more goals at the same World Cup — after Brazil in 2002, when Ronaldo scored eight and Rivaldo five.
Former Scotland striker Pat Nevin was effusive in his praise on BBC Radio 5 Live. “France are the best, most skilful, most dangerous attacking team in the tournament,” he said. “They have more than one threat. They have two, three, four that are capable.” Patrick Vieira, who was part of the France squad that beat Brazil 3-0 in the 1998 World Cup final, echoed that sentiment on ITV Sport, describing the current generation as being “on the verge of greatness”.
Manager Didier Deschamps, who has been in charge of the French national team since 2012, has confirmed this will be his final tournament. In that time, France won the 2018 World Cup, lost to Argentina in the 2022 final, fell to Portugal in the Euro 2016 final, and were beaten 2-1 by Spain in the semi-finals of Euro 2024.
France’s potential semi-final opponents could be Spain, who face Belgium in their quarter-final on Friday at 20:00 BST. If Spain progress, the two sides would meet in Dallas on Tuesday at 20:00 BST. Spain arrived at the tournament as current European champions and have reached the quarter-finals without conceding a goal, despite opening their campaign with a goalless draw against Cape Verde.
Image credit: BBC Sport / BBC Sport
