FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS – JULY 09: Yassine Bounou #1 of Morocco reacts during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Quarter Final match between France and Morocco at Boston Stadium on July 09, 2026 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Hector Vivas – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)Yassine Bounou has turned the penalty spot into a psychological battleground where strikers come to lose their nerve.The Morocco goalkeeper’s latest victim? Kylian Mbappe.In the World Cup quarter-final against France, Bounou stood tall, guessed right, and palmed away the French captain’s spot-kick a save that sent a shiver through the French bench and further cemented Bounou’s status as one of the most feared penalty-stoppers in football history.The numbers are nothing short of intimidating. Since his World Cup debut in 2022, Bounou has faced nine penalties. Only two have gone in. He has saved four, and three others have missed the target entirely.That means more than three-quarters of the penalties he has faced 77% have not resulted in a goal. A penalty is statistically one of the most reliable ways to score in football. Against Bounou, it’s a gamble with terrible odds.With his save against Mbappe, Bounou reached a historic milestone. He has now saved four penalties at World Cups, drawing level with the legendary Harald Schumacher, Sergio Goycochea, Danijel Subasic, and Dominik Livakovic for the most penalty saves in tournament history. No goalkeeper has ever saved more.Bounou’s World Cup story is not a new one. At Qatar 2022, he was Morocco’s hero in a stunning shootout victory over Spain, saving two penalties and becoming only the second goalkeeper in history to get through a World Cup shootout without conceding a single kick.At the 2026 tournament, he added to his legend by saving the decisive spot-kick against the Netherlands in the round of 32.



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