Second half goals from Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele were enough to see Didier Deschamps’ highly favoured side see off a stubborn challenge by the African Cup of Nations holders in the first of the quarter-finals.
Mbappe had earlier spurned a golden opportunity to give the French the lead on 26 minutes when the striker’s tame penalty was comfortably saved by Morocco goalkeeper Bono after the Real Madrid man had been brought down in the box by Noussair Mazraoui.
The Morocco keeper was there again 10 minutes later to produce a fine low save to deny Desire Doue after another sweeping French move.
Lucas Digne then tried his luck and struck the bar with a spectacular 25-yard effort on the stroke of half time.
However, Morocco’s stubborn resistance was eventually broken on the hour by that man Mbappe.
The French skipper curled home a quite majestic effort from the left edge of the box to draw level with Lionel Messi at the top of the 2026 World Cup scoring charts with eight.
And five minutes later the French doubled their advantage when Ousmane Dembele drilled home a fierce drive from just outside the box to set the seal on what in truth was a comfortable victory.
France will now await the winners of the second quarter-final tie between Spain and Belgium which takes place on Friday at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, kick-off 20.00 (UK).
Whoever emerges victorious there, the semi-final with France will take place in Dallas on Tuesday, July 14, kick-off 20.00 (UK).
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After a draw with Inter and win over K-League All Stars, we’ll now face Atletico Madrid on Sunday 9 August at 12:00 (UK).
It will be available to watch on mancity.com and our official app for current CITY+ subscribers globally*.
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*City v Atletico Madrid: Globally available except South Korea, Spain
