Norway striker Erling Haaland bemoaned the delay before France captain Kylian Mbappe’s first-half penalty in the 2-0 2026 FIFA World Cup quarter-final win over Morocco on Thursday (July 9) at Boston Stadium, Foxborough.
Following a foul on him by Noussair Mazraoui inside the box, Mbappe stood up for the penalty but was made to wait for over three minutes as VAR investigated a potential foul in the build-up.
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Mbappe eventually missed his penalty off a stuttering run-up, with Bono diving low to his left to keep out the ball, marking only the second time the Frenchman missed a spot-kick for Les Bleus, scoring 14.
Haaland, who was watching the game, remarked on SnapChat, as tweeted by The Touchline:
“Need to wait 5 mins to take a penalty is way too long.”
Mbappe’s only other penalty miss for Didier Deschamps’ side came against Kazakhstan in 2021. Since then, he has scored 13 consecutive spot-kicks before that run was ended by Bono,
Nevertheless, the Real Madrid marksman bounced back from the missed penalty by opening the scoring at the hour mark with a brilliant curler before Ousmane Dembele’s strike six minutes later gave a comfortable victory for Les Bleus.
The two-time champions await the winner of the Spain-Belgium quarter-final on Tuesday (July 14) at Dallas Stadium, Arlington.
France captain Kylian Mbappe goes atop 2026 FIFA World Cup Golden Boot leaderboard after scoring vs Morocco
France striker Kylian Mbappe is on a hot streak at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, scoring in a third straight knockout game to take his team to a third straight semi-final in the competition.
With his latest effort in the quarter-final win over Morocco on Thursday, the 28-year-old displaced Lionel Messi atop the Golden Boot leaderboard. While both players have scored eight times apiece, Mbappe is top, as he has two more assists than the Argentine (1).
After registering two assists in the 4-1 group-stage win over Norway – where he didn’t score – Mbappe assisted Ousmane Dembele’s strike as the Paris Saint-Germain winger scored his fifth goal of this editin.
Kylian Mbappe now trails Messi (21) by one in the all-time World Cup scoring charts, having scored 20 times in as many games across just three editions.
Edited by Bhargav