Kylian Mbappe scored an impressive brace and also provided an assist as France beat Poland 3-1 to secure their place in the World Cup quarter-final at Al Thumama Stadium on Sunday night.
Olivier Giroud opened the scoring a minute before half-time to become France’s all-time top scorer, surpassing Thierry Henry’s 51 goals for Les Blues.
France have lost just one of their seven World Cup knockout matches under Didier Deschamps, the last being the 2014 quarterfinal against eventual winners Germany.
The defending champions will now await the winners of the England Senegal encounter.
However, Poland should have taken the lead on 38 minutes had they not squandered three glorious chances in a span of 5 seconds as France held on.
Piotr Zelinski fired a thunderous shot straight at French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris from 13 yards before his follow-through was blocked by left-back Theo Hernandez. Raphael Varane then cleared away Jakub Kaminski’s effort from the line as Les Blues looked shaky on defence.
Giroud breaks the record
Six minutes later, Giroud opened the scoring for the evening, receiving a neat pass from Mabppe into the left inner channel and then slotting a calm, collected shot past Wojciech Szczesny into the Polish goal.
Being left behind by half the team seemed to have broken the hearts of the Poles, who barely entered the game after the break. Robert Lewandowski cut a lone figure up front and the Barcelona striker had to drop into midfield to help on possession. However, the Poles lacked mordant up top and barely threatened Lloris in the French goal.
Mpabbe takes control
Mbappé made it 2-0 for the French in the 74th minute with a thunderous shot from the edge of the box past Szczesny at the near post. It was the PSG star’s fourth goal in the World Cup and despite France not being at their best, Les Blues were sailing.
It soon made it 3-0 on 91 minutes, Mbappé once again crashing a curling effort into the top right corner, his fifth in Qatar and the 23-year-old leads the pack for the golden boot.
Poland got some consolation in the dying minutes of the match when Lewandowski scored their penalty replay, having missed the first effort, past Lloris to make it 3-1.
The French never had to increase their momentum and barely broke a sweat sending a warning message to the rest of the remaining teams in the tournament.
Photo credit: IMAGO / Fotoarena
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