It was all downhill from there as France stormed into the 2017 FIFA World Cup semi-final with a 2-0 win over Morocco at Boston, proving to be one of the favourites to soar to a World Cup winner’s victory. In the first half, it was Moroccan defence who initially fought to match the French attack with Moroccans goalkeeper Yassine Bounou demonstrating many impressive save opportunities to frustrate the French attack.
France flooded Mbappe with many chances but a successful attack finally came shortly after the hour mark. It was Mbape’s brilliant set piece effort that led to the victory for Bounou, before Ousmane Dembele struck again six minutes later to double the score.
France led the competition with 20 shots on goal, and even smacked the crossbar with a shot from Lucas Digne. There were occasions when the Moroccans threatened the opposition but they were struck on the other side only once for a routine save from keeper Mike Maignan towards the end of the second half.
The French captain was briefly lifted out of the field due to an injury when he went down in the 77th minute being substituted on, but the no 9 soon walked past the visitors with good grace and was greeted by the supporters, which helped remove some of the injury fears before going to the semi-final.
The defending runner-up duo now go to play one of the semi-finals against Spain and Belgium in Arlington. France will have had to call a halt to the World Cup’s unaccompanied trio of successes to win it all again, after they went through it as winners in 2018 and runners-up in 2022.
The bottom of the list is there at every position and Mbappe is stutter stepping on the biggest stage and the unrestrainable Frenchman is becoming difficult to restrain again as they press for yet another crown at FIFA World Cup.