World Cup 2026 pages
Sports · World Cup 2026 · Quarter-final
Francevs
Morocco
2–0
Full time · Thursday, July 9, 2026 · 4:00 p.m. ET · Boston Stadium (Gillette Stadium), Foxborough, MA
Result
France reached a third straight World Cup semi-final with a 2-0 win over Morocco at Gillette Stadium. The tie's turning point came on 28 minutes, when Yassine Bounou dived low to his right to save a Kylian Mbappé penalty. Morocco's resistance held until the hour: Mbappé swept in Désiré Doué's cutback on 60 minutes, and Ousmane Dembélé curled a second from the edge of the box six minutes later. Morocco managed only one shot on target and never threatened a way back. France's one concern was Mbappé, withdrawn on 77 minutes with an apparent injury, as Didier Deschamps' side booked a semi-final in Dallas against the winner of Spain–Belgium. France advance to the semi-finals.
France 4-2-3-14-2-3-1 MoroccoFranceSubstitutions
At this Stage
The 2022 semi-final got its sequel, and the scoreline copied over: France 2, Morocco 0. For an hour the Atlas Lions threatened the upset — Yassine Bounou guessed right and pushed away Kylian Mbappé's penalty on 28 minutes, and Morocco's low block held. Then it broke in six minutes: Mbappé finished Désiré Doué's cutback on 60, Ousmane Dembélé drilled the second from outside the box on 66, and Morocco — five shots, one on target all night — had no reply. So the tournament's form side move on to a third straight semi-final, in Dallas on July 14 against the winner of Spain–Belgium, while Morocco's run ends in the last eight, one round shy of their 2022 heights. The favourites are still standing, and the front three still decides everything.
Round of 16
Quarter-final
Semi-final
What we know now
Venue: Boston Stadium
Attendance: 63,811
Watch: FOX in English (free over the air, stream free on Tubi, or on Fox One) and Telemundo in Spanish (stream on Peacock or the Telemundo app).
What I said beforehand
The preview, frozen at kickoff. Clearly dated, never rewritten — that's the deal that makes the predictions worth anything.
France to advance and reach a third straight semi-final. Deschamps' side have the tournament's most dangerous attack — Mbappé (seven goals), Dembélé and Olise — and beat this same Morocco 2-0 in the 2022 semi-final. The Atlas Lions are no easy out: Ouahbi's side went through the Netherlands on penalties, beat Canada 3-0 with an Ounahi brace, and have Achraf Hakimi driving them from right-back. But injury doubts over Aurélien Tchouaméni and striker Ismael Saibari cloud the build-up, and France's ceiling is simply higher. France by a goal or two — 2-0 would surprise no one.
My locked pick: France advance ✓ RIGHT
“France to advance and reach a third straight World Cup semi-final. Deschamps' side carry the tournament's most fearsome front line — Mbappé (seven goals), Dembélé and Olise — and won all three Group I matches before a 3-0 dismissal of Sweden and a gritty 1-0 over Paraguay. This is a rematch of the 2022 semi-final that France won 2-0; Ouahbi's Morocco are stubborn, went to penalties past the Netherlands and carry Hakimi's threat down the right, but France's ceiling is higher. France by a goal or two, injury doubts to Tchouaméni and Saibari permitting.”
Locked 2026-07-08 01:16 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
The case for France
60.9% to winFrance have looked like the tournament's most complete side — fifteen goals in five games, a settled spine of Maignan, Saliba and Rabiot, and a front line that can win a match from nothing through Mbappé, Dembélé or Olise. They have already beaten Morocco on this stage, in the 2022 semi-final, and rarely lose knockout ties when the front three is firing. If Deschamps' side start on the front foot, Morocco may struggle to get out of their own half.
The case for Morocco
17% to winMorocco are built for exactly this kind of night — deep, disciplined and lethal in transition through Hakimi and Brahim Díaz, with the belief of a shootout win over the Netherlands behind them. They matched Brazil in the group stage and have conceded sparingly; if they can frustrate France and take the tie deep, Yassine Bounou is a proven penalty specialist. The 2022 semi-finalists know this stage better than most, and an early goal would test a France defence that can be loose.
Both cases written 2026-07-08, before kickoff — they freeze into the record exactly as written, however the match goes. The percentages are mine, quoted to a decimal because false precision is funnier — the unclaimed 22.1% belongs to the draw.
Storylines
- France reached a third straight World Cup semi-final, beating Morocco 2-0 — the same scoreline by which they knocked the Atlas Lions out in the 2022 semi-final.
- Kylian Mbappé scored his eighth goal of the tournament to open the scoring on the hour, but had a 28th-minute penalty saved by Yassine Bounou and was substituted on 77 minutes with an apparent injury, a worry before the semi-final.
- Ousmane Dembélé struck the second six minutes after Mbappé's opener; Morocco, unbeaten in normal time to that point, managed only one shot on target and bowed out in the quarter-finals.
- France will meet the winner of Spain–Belgium in the semi-finals in Dallas on July 14; Achraf Hakimi and Morocco go home a round short of their historic 2022 run.
The coaches
Didier Deschamps France
Set up in his fluid 4-2-3-1 and got the decisive hour from his front line; France march on to a third straight semi-final, still unbeaten.
Mohamed Ouahbi Morocco
Had Morocco deep, organised and dangerous on the counter through Hakimi, but his side mustered a single shot on target and exit in the last eight.
Availability
| Aurélien Tchouaméni | Did not start — the adductor/groin problem that dogged the build-up kept him out of the lineup; Manu Koné continued alongside Adrien Rabiot in central midfield | ESPN team sheet / FIFA match centre |
| William Saliba | Started — lined up at centre-back alongside Dayot Upamecano despite carrying a back problem, and saw out the shutout | ESPN team sheet |
| Ismael Saibari | Out — the hamstring injury sustained against Canada ruled him out; he did not feature | Al Jazeera / Sports Mole |
| Chadi Riad | Did not start — Noussair Mazraoui shifted inside to partner Issa Diop and Anass Salah-Eddine started at left-back in Morocco's back four | ESPN team sheet / FIFA match centre |
Availability drifts hourly in tournament week — every row carries its source and date for exactly that reason.
Weather: Gillette Stadium in Foxborough is open-air. A warm, humid New England evening for the 4pm ET kickoff — partly cloudy, temperatures in the mid-to-upper 70s°F easing toward a low near 67°F overnight, a stray shower or thunderstorm possible, with a southwesterly breeze of 10–15 mph. (NWS Boston/Norton (forecast.weather.gov), 9 Jul 2026, as of 2026-07-09)
Referee: Facundo Tello (Argentina). An all-Argentine crew — assistants Juan Pablo Belatti and Gabriel Chade, fourth official Darío Herrera. Confirmed on the FIFA match centre / ESPN match officials for the tie. (FIFA quarter-final appointment (Law 5 – The Referee tracker; Morocco World News, 7 Jul 2026), confirmed on the ESPN match data, as of 2026-07-09)
Venue: Boston Stadium (Gillette Stadium), Foxborough, MA, United States — FIFA strips sponsor names for the tournament; the everyday name is in parentheses.