{"podcast":{"title":"Trending Middle East","slug":"trending-middle-east-1217475","podcast_index_feed_id":1217475,"rss_url":"https://feed.podbean.com/thenationalnewstrendingmiddleeast/feed.xml","website_url":"https://thenationalnewstrendingmiddleeast.podbean.com","image_url":"https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/12359547/Trending_logo_use9h9nt.jpg","author":"The National News","episode_count":996,"summary":"We bring you the top news stories, field reports and in-depth insights from the Middle East and beyond","last_synced_at":"2026-07-27T14:19:22.711058+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/trending-middle-east-1217475"},"episode":{"title":"World Cup round-up: A France-Morocco match full of records and no Arab or African teams remain","slug":"world-cup-round-up-a-france-morocco-match-full-of-records-and-no-arab-or-african-teams-remain","published_at":"2026-07-10T04:58:59+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/trending-middle-east-1217475/world-cup-round-up-a-france-morocco-match-full-of-records-and-no-arab-or-african-teams-remain","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/trending-middle-east-1217475","url":"https://thenationalnewstrendingmiddleeast.podbean.com/e/world-cup-round-up-a-france-morocco-match-full-of-records-and-no-arab-or-african-teams-remain/","audio_url":"https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/j9qvhygvjmjhgxu8/World_Cup_10_July_mixdown7gk8c.mp3","summary":"France are in the World Cup semi-finals after beating Morocco 2-0 at Gillette Stadium, ending another historic Arab and African campaign. It is France's third consecutive World Cup semi-final and they have still not conceded a goal at this tournament. Mbappe was the central figure despite missing a first-half penalty, saved by Bounou in what was a record-equalling moment. The Moroccan goalkeeper has now saved four penalties at World Cups, drawing level with the most by any goalkeeper in tournament history. After the break, Mbappe curled a superb finish to make it 1-0, levelling with Messi on eight goals in the Golden Boot race, before Dembele added a second to put the match beyond Morocco. Dembele's goal means France are only the second team in 50 years to have two players score five or more at the same World Cup, after Brazil in 2002. Morocco's performance without Ismael Saibari reflected his absence. They sat deep, limited France's opportunities for long spells but struggled to break forward when they won the ball. There are no Arab or African teams left in the tournament. Fifa's chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina defended World Cup officials in the wake of Egypt's complaint and the Balogun controversy, saying nobody can question the integrity of match officials and that Fifa refereeing cannot be influenced by anyone, including the Fifa president. Jarell Quansah has received a two-match ban for his red card against Mexico, meaning he misses the quarter-final against Norway and the semi-final if England progress, adding to the debate around consistency given Balogun's suspended ban. Tonight, Spain face Belgium at 11pm UAE time in Los Angeles. Spain have kept six consecutive clean sheets and gone more than 10 hours without conceding. The winner faces France in…","meta_description":"France are in the World Cup semi-finals after beating Morocco 2-0 at Gillette Stadium, ending another historic Arab and African campaign. It is France's t…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":303,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/trending-middle-east-1217475/episodes/world-cup-round-up-a-france-morocco-match-full-of-records-and-no-arab-or-african-teams-remain/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/trending-middle-east-1217475/world-cup-round-up-a-france-morocco-match-full-of-records-and-no-arab-or-african-teams-remain.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}