MBAP OF THE NET! - Goal machine Mbappe goes from zero to hero and inspires France win over Morocco after penalty miss

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Supreme

Kylian Mbappe

came back from a missed penalty to fire

France

through to the semi-finals of the

World Cup

. His second-half stunner lifted

Didier Deschamps'

side out of their malaise in the Boston evening sunshine.

Morocco

never truly threatened, and just like in their semi-final meeting four years ago, they were eliminated by France after a 2-0 loss. The continued absence of star attacker Ismael Saibari was a blow for boss Mohamed Ouahbi, whose team were toothless whenever they had the rare opportunity to attack.

Morocco barely had time to settle after going behind.

Ousmane Dembele

doubled France's lead six minutes later and it was goodnight.

Mbappe took a couple of blows in the closing stages, and his manager wasn't willing to take any chances. Deschamps withdrew the man now level with

Lionel Messi

on eight goals at this World Cup as a precaution.

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The headline from an attritional first half was Mbappe's penalty miss. Having been scythed down by

Manchester United

defender Noussair Mazraoui, the

Real Madrid

superstar had to wait three minutes and 20 seconds while

VAR

checked for... well, no one was quite sure.

Looking to repeat his success from the spot against

Paraguay

in the round of 16, Mbappe went the same way but was denied. Yassine Bounou continued his remarkable record when facing penalties at World Cups and kept it goalless.

Out of nine penalties he's faced, only two have got past Morocco's goalkeeper. Bounou also made a brilliant save to deny Desire Doue before half-time and then tipped

Lucas Digne's

long-range effort onto the crossbar.

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.

But Mbappe responded in style with his 20th goal in his 20th World Cup game, a feat made even more remarkable when you consider that he's only 27. Picking up the ball on the left-hand side of the 18-yard box, Mbappe used Issa Diop as a shield and curled a superb strike beyond the helpless Bounou.

But the

Al-Hilal

shot-stopper certainly had a chance to stop France's second. Picking up the ball up from Mbappe with space ahead of him down the middle, Dembele drove forward and produced a low effort which went through Bounou's fingers, as the Atlas Lions' World Cup hopes slipped away.