Erling Haaland has said he believes France captain Kylian Mbappé was made to wait “too long” to take a penalty against Morocco in Thursday’s World cup quarterfinal.
Mbappé earned a spot-kick in the 20th minute of the game but had to wait more than three minutes, due to a VAR review of the incident, before being allowed to shoot.
His tame effort was kept out by Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou and France coach Didier Deschamps said the delay contributed to Mbappé’s miss.
Norway striker Haaland, who watched the encounter on TV, shared a picture of Mbappé after his missed penalty and wrote on Snapchat: “Need to wait five min [sic] to take a penalty is too long.”
The Real Madrid forward made amends as he gave France a 60th minute lead before setting up Ousmane Dembélé for a 2-0 win.
Mbappé, who joined Argentina‘s Lionel Messi on eight goals for the tournament, one more goal than Haaland, admitted he could have struck the penalty better.
– Mbappé, France lethal vs. Morocco in reaching World Cup semifinals
– France vs. Morocco player ratings as Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembelé strike to seal World Cup semifinals spot
– France’s Kylian Mbappé allays any World Cup injury concern: ‘I’m all good’
“I didn’t take it well,” he told L’Équipe. “It’s complicated because there was a lot of confusion with the video review.
“I made the give-and-go with Ousmane, who passed me the ball. Then he told me there might not be a penalty and that we had to wait for the call. I lost my focus.
“I’d imagined lots of scenarios to stay focused before taking a penalty kick, but never that one. I’ll just have to adapt.”
