​France captain Kylian Mbappe said Thursday that his team were not getting carried away by their progress to the World Cup semi-finals, even after they sealed a 2-0 win over Morocco to reach the last four. He cautioned against overestimating their mission, noting that the only way to ease off would be to win more games, and emphasized that there is still a long road ahead.
Speaking to the French broadcaster M6 after a tightly contested quarter-final in which he had a first-half penalty saved but went on to open the scoring, Mbappe acknowledged the sense of accomplishment while underscoring the difficulty still to come. “I don’t know if you can call it a mission. That might be the easy way to put it. But we know that the only way to let up is by winning,” he said, reflecting on the team’s frame of mind after advancing to the semi-finals. “We’re in the semi-finals and we’re very pleased. There’s still a long way to go, and we know what awaits will be even tougher, but we’re ready. We’re prepared to face whatever comes our way, so we’ll recover quietly and watch tomorrow’s game to see who we’ll meet next.”
Mbappe had a hand in Ousmane Dembélé’s goal that secured France’s victory at Gillette Stadium near Boston, before being substituted after taking a knock to the ankle. He later explained that he felt fine, noting that Jean-Philippe Mateta was better placed to finish the final 15 minutes, so he came off as a precaution. “I’m fine. I took a knock on the ankle, but I’m okay. I think at that moment JP was more prepared than me to play the last 15 minutes, so I came off.”
Looking ahead, Mbappe is expected to be fit for the semi-final, with France set to travel to Dallas to face the winner of Friday’s quarter-final between Spain and Belgium. The semi-final is scheduled for Tuesday, July 14. France embarked on their World Cup journey with triumph in 1998 and 2018, followed by a heartbreaking final defeat on penalties to Argentina in 2022.