So Kylian Mbappe just did the thing again, and honestly, at this point we should just rename the World Cup the Mbappe Show and be done with it. France rolled past Morocco 2-0 at Boston Stadium to book their ticket to the semi-finals, and yes, you guessed it, the man with the golden boots was front and center for all of it. Here is the funny part though: Mbappe actually missed a penalty in the first half. Like, a genuine, bona fide, golden opportunity from the spot, and Yassine Bounou said absolutely not, pal, and swatted it away like a fly at a summer picnic. For about fifteen minutes, it looked like maybe this was not going to be Mbappe's night. Spoiler alert: it absolutely was.
Because right around the hour mark, Mbappe decided he was done with the whole missing thing, curled an absolute beauty into the far corner from the edge of the box, and reminded everyone that penalty misses are just appetizers for this guy. Then, barely six minutes later, he morphed from goalscorer to playmaker, slipping Ousmane Dembele through with a pass so perfectly weighted you would think he had a tape measure on the pitch, and Dembele slotted it home with the calm of someone picking up their dry cleaning. Two goals, one from each of France's dynamic duo, and Morocco's World Cup dream was effectively over.
This is now France's third consecutive World Cup semi-final, by the way. They won the whole thing in 2018, lost in the final to Argentina in 2022, and here they are again, knocking on the door like that neighbor who always shows up at dinnertime. Didier Deschamps has somehow built a team that simply refuses to go away. Mbappe now has eight goals in this tournament and leads the Golden Boot race, with only Lionel Messi sitting above him on the all-time World Cup scoring list at 21 goals to Mbappe's 20. Dembele, meanwhile, became just the third Frenchman to hit five goals in a single World Cup, joining Mbappe and Just Fontaine. That is absurd company to keep. Morocco gave everything, Bounou was sensational in that first half, and their fans represented an entire continent and beyond, but France just had too much firepower. The machine rolls on.
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