Morocco arrived in Boston missing the one player who had carried their attack all tournament. Ismael Saibari — the scorer of Morocco's opener against Brazil, the winner against Scotland, and the equalizer against Haiti — was ruled out with the hamstring injury that forced him off 22 minutes into the Canada win, and his absence showed. Mohamed Ouahbi started without a recognized striker at all, fielding Chemsdine Talbi, Bilal El Khannouss and Brahim Díaz across the front line with Azzedine Ounahi, Ayoub Bouaddi and Neil El Aynaoui behind them. It never really produced a clean chance, and France's superior control of the game was never seriously threatened, even after their own biggest opportunity of the afternoon went begging.
That chance was a penalty. In the 25th minute, Noussair Mazraoui clattered into Kylian Mbappé in the box, and after a lengthy VAR delay, Mbappé's own tame effort was saved low by Yassine Bounou — his second missed penalty of this World Cup, echoing his miss against Egypt's Mostafa Shoubir back in the Round of 16. Morocco's best moment of the half followed soon after: Désiré Doué won the ball back off Bouaddi in midfield, but the resulting effort was saved. Lucas Digne came closest to breaking the deadlock before the break, his long-range strike cannoning back off the crossbar in first-half stoppage time.
The goals, when they came, arrived in a five-minute burst just past the hour. In the 60th minute, Doué picked out Mbappé, who found the far corner with a low finish to put France 1-0 up — his eighth goal of the tournament, pulling him level with Lionel Messi at the top of the Golden Boot race. Six minutes later, Mbappé turned provider himself, and Ousmane Dembélé's shot from just outside the box crept beyond Bounou to make it 2-0 — Dembélé's fifth goal of the tournament, and the goal that put the match to bed. Soufiane Rahimi had been introduced for El Khannouss just after the hour, in a double change alongside Sofyan Amrabat (on for Bouaddi), but arrived too late and too starved of service to change anything; Issa Diop picked up a booking soon after the substitutions as Morocco's afternoon of frustration wore on.
France, unbeaten and yet to require extra time across six matches this World Cup, advance to a third consecutive World Cup semifinal — a genuine mark of consistency at the very top of the men's game. Morocco, for their part, exit at the quarterfinal stage for a second straight tournament, this time under a manager who had been in the job barely four months. Mohamed Ouahbi's first major tournament in charge ends in the last eight — the same stage Walid Regragui's Morocco reached in 2022, before going one round further to the semifinal. It is a fine result marred only by the timing of an untimely hamstring strain.
Missed a penalty, then delivered a goal and an assist to send France through — and pulled level with Messi at the top of the Golden Boot race in the process. Bounou pushed him hardest for this award, but the man who actually decided the tie takes it.