The 2026 FIFA World Cup continued on Thursday with the opening of the quarterfinal spherical.
4 matchups — France versus Morocco, Spain versus Belgium, England versus Norway and Argentina versus Switzerland — make up this spherical of the event. By probability, every matchup options one staff that has received the World Cup beforehand and one staff that has by no means pulled off the feat.
The spherical started with France taking over Morocco on a sweltering day in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Listed here are the important thing tales from that match — and from the remainder of the World Cup universe:
France’s endurance paid off in opposition to a cussed Morocco aspect
It wasn’t at all times simple and it actually wasn’t at all times fairly, however France held its nerve to drag off a 2-0 win over Morocco beneath the new Massachusetts solar. The win secures France a spot within the World Cup semifinals, the place it’ll face one among Spain or Belgium. This will likely be France’s eighth look within the semifinals total and its third straight look since its championship run in 2018.
The sport was notable for a number of causes: It prolonged coach Didier Deschamps’ report because the winningest coach in World Cup historical past, it gave attacker Kylian Mbappé the chance to notch up one other objective and help in his quest for the Golden Boot and it secured Morocco a spot in historical past as the primary African staff to make back-to-back late-stage World Cup knockout appearances.
However the match was additionally notable for its familial nature. Six Moroccan gamers — Ayyoub Bouaddi, Issa Diop, Samir El Mourabet, Gessime Yassine, Neil El Aynaoui and Redouane Halhal — have been born in France, and 13 gamers throughout each groups hail from membership groups in France. These two units of gamers know one another very, very nicely, and that confirmed. The match felt very similar to an intense however good-natured squabble amongst siblings.
Each groups performed nicely, however Mbappé’s class wound up making the distinction. His inch-perfect objective within the sixtieth minute and considerate long-distance help within the 66th sealed the match in France’s favor. He now leads the event Golden Boot standings with eight targets and three assists to his identify.
