Kylian Mbappé missed a penalty in France’s 2-0 win over Morocco in the World Cup quarter-finals after the striker waited more than three minutes to take it.
Kylian Mbappé vents his anger at referee Facundo Tero after waiting more than three minutes to take a penalty (Image: Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Kylian Mbappé says a long delay was to blame for France’s disastrous penalty miss in their win over Morocco. On Thursday in Boston, France, France, led by in-form Mbappé, won 2-0 against Morocco in the World Cup quarter-finals.
Goals from Mbappé and Ousmane Dembele helped Didier Deschamps’ side reach the semi-finals of their third consecutive World Cup. But Mbappé could have moved forward in the Golden Boot race if he had converted from the spot.
Just before the water break in a closely contested first half, Les Bleus disrupted the pace and Mbappé stepped over past Nousser Mazraoui but was tackled, prompting the referee to point to the penalty spot. Mbappé was then put on standby due to VAR intervention, and a lengthy hold-up forced him to reset his approach routine several times.
After several minutes of extended VAR review, the decision was made to uphold the original ruling. After a long wait and under pressure, Mbappe stepped up and meekly took a penalty to his right, which was easily saved by Yassin Bono.
The failure ended France’s streak of 15 consecutive penalty kicks and was the first spot-kick they failed to convert in their World Cup career.
ITV commentator Ally McCoist labeled the wait caused by the VAR check as “utter nonsense”, but insisted Mbappe should take responsibility for the penalty mistake.
“You may be far from happy, but don’t do that, just stagger up and take a nudge at the keeper,” he said. “Run with a little purpose.
“There’s no power there. There’s no aggression, there’s no belief. That’s unbelievable for a guy of that caliber,” he later added.
In the post-match press conference, Mbappé explained what went wrong with the penalty. Mbappé told reporters: “The penalty shooting was bad, but there was a difficult mix-up.” “The referee says it’s a penalty, so I get ready, and then the referee comes and says there might not be a penalty after all.
Mbappé misses the penalty (Image: Lars Baron/Getty Images)
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“I lost focus. I got distracted. I’ve never been in a situation like this before.”
Apart from the shootout, Mbappé has only missed two penalties in his career in France. His only other failure came almost five years ago in 2021 against Kazakhstan.
Mbappé was under pressure and furious at the refereeing team for making him wait. Immediately after the mistake, referee Facundo Tero called for a rehydration break, and while his teammates rehydrated, Mbappe gesticulated wildly at the referees.
Mbappe expressed dissatisfaction with the decision to carry out a lengthy VAR review. For the match between France and Morocco, all five referees are from Argentina: referee Tagus, assistant referee Yan Pablo Verratti, assistant referee Gabriel Chade, fourth referee Dario Herrera, and reserve assistant referee Cristian Navarro.
This will be the first match of the 2026 World Cup in which all match officials are from the same country. Mbappe scored a stunning opener in the 60th minute, teeing up Dembele five minutes later to seal the win and seal France’s place in the World Cup semi-finals.
France will face the winner of the quarter-final match between Belgium and Spain in the World Cup semi-finals in Dallas on Tuesday, July 14th.
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