France and Morocco advanced to the quarter-finals of the 2026 World Cup on Saturday in contrasting fashion, as one needed a penalty to overcome Paraguayan obduracy and the other delivered a clinical second-half burst to end Canada’s historic run. In Philadelphia, played in blistering 38°C heat, Didier Deschamps’ side ground out a 1-0 victory after 70 minutes of frustration, with Mbappé converting from the spot after a VAR review confirmed Diego Gómez’s clumsy foul on substitute Désiré Doué.

In Houston, Morocco looked far from their best in a tense first half during which the co-hosts forced Yassine Bounou into two superb saves from Jonathan David and Tani Oluwaseyi. Yet the Atlas Lions shifted gears after the interval. Five minutes in, Achraf Hakimi cleverly teed up Ounahi to sweep home a low shot from the edge of the area, and the same player doubled the lead eight minutes from time after a Brahim Díaz counter-attack. Soufiane Rahimi added a third deep into stoppage time, sealing a 3-0 scoreline that disguised Canada’s early dominance. The result made Morocco the first African nation to reach consecutive World Cup quarter-finals.

France’s path was far more fraught. Paraguay, who had ousted Germany on penalties in the previous round, deployed a deep 5-4-1 block and a repertoire of niggling fouls and provocations that earned them no yellow cards while France collected three. The pre-match Independence Day festivities gave way to an attritional stalemate, with the first half ending without a single shot on target. The introduction of Doué just after the hour proved decisive: the PSG forward’s mazy dribble drew the foul that VAR deemed a penalty, and Mbappé sent goalkeeper Orlando Gill the wrong way to claim his seventh goal of the tournament and move to 19 all-time World Cup goals, one behind Lionel Messi. After the whistle, Gill, whose outstretched hand was ignored by Mbappé, threw the ball at the French captain’s back, summing up the ill temper.

For Canada, their deepest World Cup run ended with pride but a clear lesson in the margins of the knockout game. Jesse Marsch’s side had taken the initiative and forced Morocco into repeated first-half errors, yet when chances were missed the Atlas Lions’ experience told. Morocco’s coach Mohamed Ouahbi described his team as “no longer a surprise,” and the evidence mounted that they possess the resilience and counter-attacking sharpness to trouble any opponent. France, for their part, showed that they could win ugly – a departure from their earlier free-scoring displays – but an overreliance on Mbappé in a match where Michael Olise and Ousmane Dembélé were smothered may worry Deschamps ahead of a collision with their 2022 semi-final conquerors. The quarter-final between France and Morocco is set for Thursday in Boston, where the victors will become the first team to claim a place in the last four.