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France cruises past Morocco and into the World Cup semifinals
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Kylian Mbappé had a goal and an assist after missing a first-half penalty kick, Ousmane Dembélé also scored and France beat Morocco 2-0 Thursday in the World Cup quarterfinals.
Mbappé’s goal in the 60th minute was the 20th of his World Cup career and came in his 20th match at the tournament, moving him one behind Argentina captain Lionel Messi. Dembélé scored his fifth goal of the tournament in the 66th.
Mbappé was taken down in the 76th minute and was taken off for a substitute a minute later. He was then shown sitting on the bench with an ice pack on his right ankle.
After the match and with both shoes on, Mbappé ran and jumped in celebration with his teammates.
France will face either Spain or Belgium in the semifinals in Dallas on Tuesday.
France beat Morocco by the same score in the semifinals of the 2022 tournament in Qatar when the Atlas Lions became the first African team to make it that far. France now remains on track to become only the third nation to play in the final of three consecutive World Cups.
Mbappé got his goal with a perfectly placed shot just inside the far post after Morocco failed to clear the ball. He received the ball just outside the area, took a couple steps forward and then sent his shot sailing into the net. He extended both arms and ran to the sideline to celebrate with his teammates.
France’s second goal came after Mbappé took a pass and tapped it back for Dembélé. Mbappé kept running forward and took defenders with him, opening space for Dembélé’s shot.
France held a 21-4 advantage in shots on goal and 8-1 edge in shots on target for the game.
“We are very disappointed. We wanted to go on,” Morocco coach Mohamed Ouahbi said. “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.”
Mbappé also had the first shot on goal of the game, just missing wide right in the fourth minute. Then, in the 25th, he was running up the left side when he was chopped down in the box by Morocco defender Noussair Mazraoui. Referee Facundo Tello quickly pointed to the penalty spot.
Mbappé lined up waiting for his attempt but was held up by a lengthy video review. He was finally cleared to shoot in the 28th minute, but after a hesitation, Mbappé’s shot toward the right corner was corralled by goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, who guessed the direction of the shot correctly.
Mbappé made his only other penalty attempt at this year’s World Cup in France’s 1-0 victory over Paraguay in the round of 16.
Still, France was by far the more active team offensively in the first half, holding a 13-1 advantage in shots on goal.
Morocco’s best opportunity came just before the halftime whistle when Achraf Hakimi sent a free kick from just outside the box past the right post.
Hightower writes for the Associated Press.
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Kylian Mbappé lifted from the match, France remains in control
France 2, Morocco 0, 79th minute
France remains firmly on track for a spot in the World Cup semifinals, but had a scare when Kylian Mbappé went down midfield. After staying down for a few moments, he walked off under his own power and was substituted for Jean-Philippe Mateta in the 77th minute. He was later shown on the broadcast icing his right ankle while sitting on the bench.
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Ousmane Dembélé extends the lead for France
France 2, Morocco 0, 66th minute
Ousmane Dembélé scored his fifth goal of this World Cup to put France on the cusp of a semifinal berth. Morocco will come out of the hydration break in desperation mode.
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Kylian Mbappé’s goal from distance gives France the lead
France 1, Morocco 0, 60th minute
Kylian Mbappé has put France in the lead with his 20th career World Cup goal. It’s his eighth goal of this World Cup, tied with Lionel Messi for the most.
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France and Morocco underway in the second half in Foxborough
France 0, Morocco 0, 46th minute
The second half has begun in Foxborough, Mass. The winner of this match will face the winner of the Spain-Belgium quarterfinal, which will be played Friday at SoFi Stadium.
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Morocco and France head into halftime scoreless in Foxborough
Morocco 0, France 0, halftime
Neither team has broken through in this quarterfinal match in Foxborough, Mass. But there were plenty of opportunities, the majority of them by France.
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France misses chance to take the lead on Kylian Mbappé penalty kick
France 0, Morocco 0, 28th minute
Kylian Mbappé could not put France in front after he was taken down in the box to grant France a penalty kick, which was saved by Yassine Bounou.
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France threatens early, Morocco keeps match scoreless
France 0, Morocco 0, fifth minute
France is already pressing for an opening score against Morocco in Foxborough, Mass.
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France and Morocco underway for a spot in the World Cup semifinals
France, bidding to make its third consecutive World Cup final, needed a penalty kick from Kylian Mbappé to dispatch stubborn Paraguay, a third-place team, in the round of 16. France has scored 16 times — Mbappé has seven of them, giving him 19 career World Cup goals — while goalkeeper Mike Maignan has conceded just two goals in five matches. Morocco, a semifinalist four years ago, advanced with a 3-0 win over Canada that ran its unbeaten streak to 34 games. Azzedine Ounahi scored twice in that game and is one of three Moroccan players with multiple goals. Morocco, a former French colony, has almost as many French-born players on its roster, six, as it does native Moroccans, seven.
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Commentary: Mexico lost in the World Cup — but Mexican Americans won
Mexico lost to England 3-2 in the World Cup on Sunday night, yet thousands of Mexican Americans across Southern California took to the streets as if their team had triumphed.
El Tri was eliminated from the tournament in another heartbreaker, but fans set off fireworks, joyously rocked cars and were tossed in the air from Orange County to the Inland Empire to Ventura County and all points in between, just as if we had won the damn thing.
It was yet another early exit for a team that has never even made it to the World Cup semifinals — but no one wanted to dwell on defeat, because no one felt defeated.
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Fans slam FIFA’s cooling breaks. Why the U.S. World Cup team doctor disagrees
While it may not be remembered as FIFA’s most controversial decision of the 2026 World Cup, the institution of mandatory cooling breaks in all matches has been met with boos and derision, with critics saying the pauses disrupt the game’s flow and offer little benefit in air-conditioned environments.
“They’re in a dome here! Temperature-controlled, climate-controlled — why are we having a break?” fumed one England fan to a radio reporter outside the England-Croatia match in Arlington, Texas, where field temperatures inside AT&T Stadium approached a comfortable 70 degrees Fahrenheit despite an outdoor heat and humidity index near 105 degrees.
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On America’s 250th birthday, U.S. soccer team of immigrants embodies founders’ dreams
SEATTLE — James Wilson, one of just six men who signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, never could have imagined how grand the country he was founding would become. But he knew how it could get there.
Wilson envisioned a steady stream of foreigners coming to America every year, reinvigorating the energy and vitality the nation needed if it were to survive, much less thrive. Which is why Wilson, who moved to the colonies from Scotland at 22, argued against barriers on immigration that would “deprive the government of the talents, virtue and abilities of such foreigners as might chose to remove to this country.”
What Wilson had in mind, then, is something such as the U.S. national soccer team, which gathered to train Saturday morning, on the country’s 250th birthday.
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With World Cup glory on the line, Argentina fans flock to this family-run Valley mercado
On most mornings, in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, Mercado Buenos Aires is quiet. A few older Argentine men might sip coffee with medialunas and chat about soccer and politics in the family-owned deli.
But on a recent June afternoon, as Argentina faced off with Algeria in a group-stage match at the World Cup, soccer fans stood on tables, families in sky-blue-and-white Lionel Messi jerseys chanted in unison, and every goal sent the room into gleeful mayhem.
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‘El Señor de los Cielos’ is winning the World Cup, just like Telemundo planned
This World Cup has made unlikely international stars out of a plucky Cape Verde squad, further catapulted the status of gargantuan Norwegian striker Erling Haaland and firmly planted Lionel Messi as the greatest player of his generation.
But the players on the pitch haven’t been the only ones catching the eyes of soccer viewers.
Another legend among legends has also cemented his legacy during this run: Aurelio Casillas — the fictional drug kingpin and protagonist at the heart of the long-running Telemundo series “El Señor de los Cielos.”
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Commentary: Lionel Messi is the ultimate summer romance
Everyone knew going in that Lionel Messi would be the narrative centerpiece of the 2026 World Cup. Easily the most recognized name in the competition, Messi is considered by many to be the greatest soccer player of all time and, as the captain of 2022 winner Argentina, he is the reigning World Cup champ. At 18, he scored his first World Cup goal in 2006 and has competed in every World Cup since. He celebrated his 39th birthday before this year’s knockout rounds began, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that this will be his last.
No matter what Messi did, or failed to do, it would be News. Everyone with even a passing interest in the event knew this. Including me.
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Why not them? Disappointed U.S. players hope their World Cup run inspired future stars
SEATTLE — Last fall, in an effort to inspire a national soccer team lacking in confidence and belief, coach Mauricio Pochettino came up with a slogan for this summer’s World Cup, one the U.S. would be playing at home.
“Why not us?” he asked.
Why couldn’t the U.S. make a deep run in the tournament? Why couldn’t the U.S. compete with the best teams in the world? Why not us?
Monday he got his answer: Because the U.S. just isn’t good enough.
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Commentary: The Trump ‘curse’ at the World Cup is his latest red card against Americans
For the past 11 years, I’ve waited for a scandal, a slip up, a moment of clarity that would finally make President Trump’s supporters realize that their man is a charlatan.
My fellow Americans, I think we finally found it.
Earlier this week, Trump appears to have successfully lobbied FIFA to allow U.S. striker Folarin Balogun to play in this week’s round of 16 match against Belgium despite the player receiving a red card in the previous match, which in normal times would’ve made him ineligible to play.
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Paraguayan senator demands apology from Kylian Mbappé for his response to her racist posts
A Paraguayan senator has deleted social media posts that included racist remarks about French soccer superstar Kylian Mbappé that led to Paris prosecutors opening an investigation into possible aggravated public insult and incitement to hatred or violence.
Celeste Amarilla, a 61-year-old senator from Paraguay’s Liberal Radical Party, indicated in an open letter to Mbappé on Monday that she regretted the comments she posted following Paraguay’s 1-0 loss to France in a World Cup knockout game on Saturday.
In the same letter, however, Amarilla threatened to take legal action if Mbappé did not retract and apologize for comments he made in response to one of her posts.
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FIFA grass in NFL stadiums reignites debate over pro football’s use of artificial turf
FIFA’s natural grass transformation of SoFi Stadium and six other NFL stadiums with artificial surfaces for this summer’s World Cup reignited the debate over grass versus synthetic turf.
Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis long ago took a side in the fight.
“I just always felt that football should be played on grass,” Davis told The Times. “That’s for safety purposes, No. 1. I want it to look like a game was played even if it’s an indoor field. You see grass stains and everything else. I wasn’t going to a stadium without it being grass once I knew that capability was there. Obviously, it added a lot of cost, but it’s worth it.”
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World Cup quarterfinals schedule: Start times for every match and how to watch
The 2026 FIFA World Cup quarterfinals are underway, with France defeating Morocco on Thursday and Spain beating Belgium on Friday.
World Cup co-hosts U.S., Canada and Mexico will be watching from the sideline after being eliminated in the round of 16.
Here’s everything you need to know about the two World Cup matches being played Saturday (all times Pacific).
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Looking back at the first 27 days of the World Cup
The first 27 days of the 2026 FIFA World Cup offered plenty of memorable moments.
Check out The Times’ daily recaps ahead of Thursday’s quarterfinal match between France and Morocco.
Live updates from Tuesday’s knockout round games at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Get the latest news, results and highlights from the 39-day tournament.
Live updates from Monday’s knockout round games at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Get the latest news, results and highlights from the 39-day tournament.
Live updates from Sunday’s knockout round games at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Get the latest news, results and highlights from the 39-day tournament.
Live updates from Saturday’s knockout round games at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Get the latest news, results and highlights from the 39-day tournament.
Live updates from Friday’s knockout round games at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Get the latest news, results and highlights from the 39-day tournament.
Live updates from Thursday’s knockout round games at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Get the latest news, results and highlights from the 39-day tournament.
England and Belgium rallied from early deficits and the U.S. held on despite a red card, winning Wednesday to clear the first World Cup knockout round.
Kylian Mbappé scored his fifth and sixth World Cup goals, leading France to a World Cup knockout round win Tuesday. Mexico and Norway also advanced.
Recapping Monday’s knockout-round wins by Brazil, Paraguay and Morocco at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Get the latest news, results and highlights.
Live updates from Canada vs. South Africa at the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Sunday. Get the latest news and results as the knockout rounds begin.
Live updates from the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Saturday. Get the latest news, results, standings and highlights from the 48-team, 39-day tournament.
Recapping Day 16 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Friday. Get the latest news, results, standings and highlights from the 48-team, 39-day tournament.
Live updates from the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Thursday. Get the latest news, results, standings and highlights from the 48-team, 39-day tournament.
South Africa pulled off a stunning 1-0 win over South Korea Wednesday night, advancing to the World Cup knockout stage for the first time.
Cristiano Ronaldo snapped out of his goal scoring slump to lead Portugal to a win, while Ghana held Harry Kane and England and Colombia rallied to beat Congo.
Live updates from the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Monday. Get the latest news, results, standings and highlights from the 48-team, 39-day tournament.
Live updates from the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Sunday. Get the latest news, results, standings and highlights from the 48-team, 39-day tournament.
Live updates from the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Saturday. Get the latest news, results, standings and highlights from the 48-team, 39-day tournament.
Recapping what happened at the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Friday. Get the latest news, results, standings and highlights from the 48-team, 39-day tournament.
Live updates from the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Thursday. Get the latest news, results, standings and highlights from the 48-team, 39-day tournament.
Harry Kane tied a World Cup record during England’s win, Cristiano Ronaldo was held scoreless during a draw, Ghana stunned Panama and more during Day 7.
Stars Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi all scored while leading France, Norway and Argentina to wins on Day 6 of the 2026 World Cup.
Follow along for live updates from the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Monday. Get the latest news, results, standings and highlights from the 48-team tournament.
Follow along for live updates from the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Sunday. Get the latest news, results and highlights from the 48-team, 39-day tournament.
Follow along for live updates from the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Saturday. Get the latest news, results and highlights from the 48-team, 39-day tournament.
Follow along for live updates from the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Friday. Get the latest news, results and highlights from the 48-team, 39-day tournament.
Folarin Balogun scores twice and Christian Pulisic sets up two goals to lead the U.S. to a 4-1 win in its World Cup opener over Paraguay on Friday.
Follow along for live updates from the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Thursday. Get the latest news, results and highlights from the 48-team, 39-day tournament.
Mexico defeats South Africa 2-0 in a game that featured three red cards. Julián Quiñones and Raúl Jiménez scored for Mexico in front of 80,824 fans.