France vs Morocco FIFA World Cup 2026 Quarterfinal Live Updates: Four years after they met in a mouthwatering World Cup semi-final in Qatar 2022, France and Morocco meet again tonight, this time in the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Morocco, still carrying the hurt of that semi-final defeat, will be hoping to stop the all-conquering French side this time around. Meanwhile, Kylian Mbappe continues his pursuit of another Golden Boot after last World Cup’s top-scorer title. He’s currently on seven goals, one behind Lionel Messi.
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Here’s France’s starting XI: Maignan; Kounde, Upamecano, Saliba, Digne; Kone, Rabiot; Olise, Dembele, Doue; Mbappe. And here’s how Morocco are lining up: Bounou, Hakimi, Diop, Mazraoui, Salah Eddine, El Aynaoui, Bouaddi, Ounahi, Talbi, Diaz, El Khannouss
France are bidding to become only the third country to reach the final of three successive FIFA World Cups, joining Germany and Brazil. Morocco was the first African team to make it to the World Cup semi-finals in 2022.
Scroll down to read real-time updates from the FIFA World Cup clash between France and Morocco
High-flying France show they can be fashionably ugly too
France’s Kylian Mbappe (10) celebrates scoring their third goal with Michael Olise (11) during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between France and Sweden in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
The gloriously multi-dimensional French know many ways to kill the pesky cat disturbing their sleep. They could baffle them with their touch; they could bemuse them with their wits; they could pin them down with their muscle; they could play the piano, they could wield the sledgehammer too, which makes them the deadliest proposition in the tournament. The 1-0 victory over Paraguay that ensured quarterfinals was a triumph of their brawn, their capacity to outmatch gnarled men who tried to wrestle them, sometimes literally, and at times harm them with a brand of cynicism that was strangely left unpunished.
Wins as these don’t build an aura; but construct an irresistible energy that makes them feel unbreakable; that not even the extremest tactic could shake them. It was not France’s inability to score more goals that stood in a game that Thierry Henry commented, “football finally won” but their wherewithal and knowhow to nullify any strategies thrown at them. Kylian Mbappe, who scored the lone goal of the goal, after a penalty on Desire Doue, quipped, his eyes burning with a happy rage: “They thought we were going to turn up in tuxedos, but we know how to play rough football — and even at that, we were better than them!” The line before was a warning to the world: “We’ve shown that we’re not just a team that plays attacking football; if we have to put our hands in the s—, we will put our hands in the s—.”
