France beat Morocco 2-0 — Mbappé and Dembélé send Les Bleus to a third straight semi-final

This morning's opener

The quarter-finals began at 5 a.m. JST at Foxborough near Boston, with France beating Morocco 2-0. Mbappé missed a penalty in the 25th minute but redeemed himself with the opener in the 60th, and Dembélé made it 2-0 six minutes later for his fifth goal of the tournament. It was a rematch of the 2022 semi-final, which France also won 2-0 — the same scoreline again. France reach a third straight World Cup semi-final.

An all-Argentine crew, amid a protest

The tie was handled by the tournament's first all-Argentine officiating crew, led by referee Facundo Tello. A day earlier Egypt had lodged a formal complaint with FIFA over their Round-of-16 loss to Argentina (2-0 up, beaten 3-2), demanding the officials be changed and investigated. That an Argentine crew then took the first quarter-final put refereeing under a sharper spotlight than usual.

A tournament without Japan, and what's next (JST)

Japan went out on 30 June, beaten 1-2 by Brazil, and there are no Japan matches left in the last eight. Brazil, who knocked Japan out, are gone too, beaten by Norway in the Round of 16. The next quarter-final is Spain v Belgium at 4 a.m. JST tomorrow, 11 July, in Los Angeles; the winner meets France in the semi-finals. Norway v England and Argentina v Switzerland follow in the early hours of 12 July, completing the last eight.