France are in the World Cup semi-finals, and it took Kylian Mbappé precisely six minutes after the hour to make the outcome of this quarter-final irrelevant. Two goals in seven second-half minutes at Gillette Stadium sent Morocco home and confirmed what the underlying numbers had suggested throughout: this was a one-sided contest wearing the costume of a competitive match.
Morocco had arrived in Boston with a plan and the possession to run it, finishing the game with 52 per cent of the ball and 524 passes completed. None of it produced anything of substance. Their expected-goals figure of 0.14 tells the story more cleanly than any passage of play could: they had one shot on target across ninety minutes, and Yassine Bounou was asked to make six saves at the other end. France, despite holding less of the ball, generated an xG of 3.04. Deschamps's side were better in every phase that mattered.
The first hour was tighter than the scoreline eventually suggested. Morocco sat in their 4-2-3-1 shape and denied France the central channels, pushing play wide and forcing the issue high up the pitch. Brahim Díaz showed flickers in the ten behind Bilal El Khannouss, but without the ball and without runners in behind France's defensive line, there was no mechanism to turn possession into danger. Ayyoub Bouaddi and Neil El Aynaoui shielded the back four diligently enough, though France's 22 shots tell you the shielding could only hold so long.
When the breakthrough arrived on 60 minutes, it was Désiré Doué who supplied the pass and Mbappé who finished. Six minutes later, the match was done. Mbappé turned provider, and Ousmane Dembélé converted to make it 2-0. Two goals, two combinations, the same two players at the centre of both in a six-minute spell that rendered everything that followed a formality. The second, in particular, demonstrated the cruel efficiency of this France side: Morocco had been functional and organised for an hour, and it still was not close.
Dembélé was the standout performer on the pitch. He covered every blade of grass between the right flank and the penalty area, contributed the decisive second goal, and was a persistent menace that Bounou had to deal with repeatedly. His directness was the constant pressure that eventually cracked the Atlas Lions open. Alongside him, Mbappé finished with a goal and an assist inside 77 minutes, which is about the most efficient use of a quarter-final hour imaginable.
William Saliba and Dayot Upamecano were serene throughout, barely required in a defensive sense but composed whenever Morocco ventured forward. Mike Maignan handled his single save without alarm, which accurately summarises his evening. Adrien Rabiot and Manu Koné gave France control through the midfield corridors, the former playing the full ninety, the latter putting in a strong shift before making way on 71 minutes.
For Morocco, there are no obvious errors to point to, which may be the hardest kind of defeat to absorb. Bounou was excellent, Azzedine Ounahi worked without recognition, and Achraf Hakimi pushed forward whenever the game allowed. But their attacking ambition amounted to four shots from outside the box and one from inside it. Against a France side this organised and this sharp on the counter, that was never going to be enough. France's reward is a semi-final berth. On this evidence, opponents will need considerably more than 0.14 expected goals to dislodge them.