{"id":39267,"date":"2026-07-10T12:06:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T10:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=39267"},"modified":"2026-07-10T12:06:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T10:06:33","slug":"mbappe-strikes-again-after-missing-penalty-as-france-outclass-morocco-to-reach-semi-finals","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/mbappe-strikes-again-after-missing-penalty-as-france-outclass-morocco-to-reach-semi-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Mbappe strikes again after missing penalty as France outclass Morocco to reach semi-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>France captain Kylian Mbappe missed a penalty but curled in a superb goal \u200con the hour as France struck twice in six minutes to brush aside Morocco 2-0 on Thursday and book their spot in the World Cup semi-finals.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Mbappe, who at 27 became the youngest player to rack up 20 World Cup appearances, also bagged his 20th World Cup goal with a curling shot from just inside the box before Ousmane Dembele \u200badded another six minutes later with a low drive to set up a last-four meeting with Belgium or Spain.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Mbappe is the tournament&#8217;s joint \u200btop scorer with eight goals, level with Lionel Messi, and he trails the Argentine by one goal in the World \u2060Cup all-time scoring list.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;That\u2019s three (semi-finals) in a row, it\u2019s good,&#8221; France coach Didier Deschamps said. &#8220;It seems logical and natural, but you still have to get \u200bthe job done. It was tricky, the penalty, when it\u2019s Kylian. He never has any doubts.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;But we\u2019re exactly where we wanted to be,&#8221; said Deschamps, who \u200bsubstituted Mbappe late in the game after a knock to his ankle. &#8220;We\u2019re taking another step forward today, finding ourselves in the final four once again. It shows we\u2019re right there in the mix.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In a repeat of the 2022 World Cup semi-final, France, who have now kept clean sheets in all three knockout matches, looked the hungrier throughout with Morocco, aiming \u200bfor a second straight last-four spot, badly missing injured forward Ismael Saibari, and failing to get a shot on target until the 84th minute.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We are \u200bvery disappointed, we wanted to advance,&#8221; said Morocco coach Mohamed Ouahbi. &#8221; We have to recognise that France is a great team with excellent players. France had the better scoring opportunities. We lacked ideas \u200cand freshness, \u2060and we have to accept this defeat.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Today France were stronger but we are able to compete and progress and maybe eliminate them in four years&#8217; time,&#8221; Ouahbi said. Morocco are co-hosting the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":38985,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[305,20],"class_list":["post-39267","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-special-projects","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Mbappe missed a penalty but curled in a superb goal \u200con the hour as France struck twice","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39268,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39267\/revisions\/39268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}