Morocco\u2019s dream came to an end in the quarter-finals. Facing France, the Atlas Lions suffered a 2-0 defeat in a match that was kept alive for a long time by an outstanding Yassine Bounou. The Moroccan goalkeeper delayed the inevitable for nearly an hour, before Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 and then Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 turned the game in Les Bleus\u2019 favour.<\/p>\n\n
Before the opening goal, France had already created a number of dangerous situations. Largely dominant, Les Bleus were repeatedly denied by an inspired Bounou, who was also saved by his crossbar before the break. The Moroccan goalkeeper notably stood out by keeping out a Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 penalty, allowing Morocco to stay in the game despite a very difficult first half. Offering little threat going forward, the Atlas Lions owed their survival for a long time to their last line of defence.<\/p>\n\n
But Morocco\u2019s resistance finally gave way on the hour mark. In the 60th minute, Mbapp\u00e9 broke the deadlock with a superb curling effort. Picked out just outside the box, the French forward held off Sofiane Diop before bending the ball into the far bottom corner, leaving Bounou with no chance this time. An unstoppable strike that released the pressure on France and left Morocco in an extremely difficult position.<\/p>\n\n
Six minutes later, Les Bleus pulled further clear. Ballon d\u2019Or winner Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 drove through the middle, skipped past Diop with a sharp change of direction and beat Bounou with a low curling effort. On this occasion, the Moroccan goalkeeper, flawless until then, was unable to prevent France from doubling their lead. In the space of just a few minutes, the game had swung decisively, leaving Morocco\u2019s hopes severely diminished.<\/p>\n\n
Despite this elimination, Morocco leave the competition with their heads held high. The Atlas Lions were unable to overturn a sharper and more clinical France side, but their run once again confirms Moroccan football\u2019s place among the world\u2019s leading nations. This defeat will leave regrets, particularly given Bounou\u2019s solidity for much of the match, but it does not erase the progress made by this generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Morocco\u2019s dream came to an end in the quarter-finals. Facing France, the Atlas Lions suffered a 2-0 defeat in a match that was kept alive for a long time by an outstanding Yassine Bounou. The Moroccan goalkeeper delayed the inevitable for nearly an hour, before Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 and then Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 turned the game in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[691,691],"tags":[31483,31484,1022,31482,31485],"maw_player":[],"class_list":["post-499910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world-cup","tag-atlas-lions","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026-2","tag-headlines-en","tag-mohamed-ouahbi","tag-morocco-national-team"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":499911,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499910\/revisions\/499911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499910"},{"taxonomy":"maw_player","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/maw_player?post=499910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}