“There definitely was a handball!”

Morocco manager Mohamed Ouahbi has questioned the legitimacy of Kylian Mbappe’s goal during their 2-0 loss against France in their FIFA World Cup clash. The two nations locked horns in the World Cup quarter-finals on Thursday, July 9.

The Atlas Lions defended extremely well in the first half and were able to keep the score at 0-0 after Yassine Bounou made an excellent save to prevent Kylian Mbappe from scoring a penalty. However, the latter unleashed an unstoppable effort into the top-right corner in the 60th minute to break the deadlock, before Ousmane Dembele fired home into the bottom corner to secure a 2-0 win (66′).

During the build-up to Mbappe’s goal, Adrien Rabiot appeared to have handled the ball, resulting in several Morocco stars stopping play as they expected a free-kick. After the 27-year-old opened the scoring, the handball incident was not reviewed by VAR as well, despite Morocco’s protests.

Ouahbi provided his thoughts on this verdict, stating (via @TouchlineX, h/t Times of India):

“Some players stopped because there was a handball. And there definitely was a handball! I don’t know whether it should have been called or not; I have no idea… in the end, it was an individual effort from Kylian Mbappé that led to the goal.”

As per refereeing analyst Juan Guzmán, the officials were justified in not disallowing the goal in the FIFA World Cup clash as the handball had no direct impact on Kylian Mbappe’s goal.

Kylian Mbappe provides injury update after limping off during FIFA World Cup clash vs Morocco

France superstar Kylian Mbappe has revealed that he suffered a knock to his ankle following a second-half challenge by Issa Diop, but is doing fine. Didier Deschamps opted to take no risks, subbing off Mbappe for Jean-Philippe Mateta in the 77th minute.

Following the game after recording one goal and one assist for Les Bleus, Mbappe told reporters (via ABC News):

“I took a knock to the ankle, but I’m fine. At that point, JP (Mateta) was in better shape than I was to play the final minutes.”

Mbappe has excelled at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, garnering eight goals and three assists in six games. France will next face the winner of Spain and Belgium in the semi-finals on July 14.