On Tuesday night, Hungarian time, France showed again why everyone counted them as one of the biggest contenders for this year’s World Cup, beating the Swedes, who did not show much resistance, very easily, 3-0. In the first half, goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterström’s great saves and the goal post helped the Swedish team, but they fell behind before the break, and in the second half they were crushed by the still well-oiled French offensive machine. Kylian Mbappé scored twice, making him 6 goals like Lionel Messi.
In the beginning, the teams got off to a rather slow start, probably partly because New Jersey, where the match was held, the heat has already reached32 degrees to be exact. After a quarter of an hour, however, it was already apparent that the French would roll here as well, they quickly created several dangerous situations, and in the 21st minute, the Swedes fell asleep, so Michael Olise could easily escape Kylian Mbappé, but the French striker scored a goal in vain, he started offside, so the score remained 0-0. After the drink break, the French went even higher, in addition to Zetterström’s great feats, the goal post was also needed to prevent the Swedes from falling behind.
In one of these situations, Olise could have scored the goal of the World Cup from a scissor shot, but his perfectly struck shot hit the post, and the rebound was shot over by the also very active Ousmane Dembélé. In the 45th minute, however, the formidable trio of the French scored the first goal, Dembélé received the ball from Olis after a corner, and then immediately passed to the free-kicking Mbappé, who beat his defender, then scored a great goal into the far post. With this, Mbappé scored his 9th goal at the World Cup in the elimination phase, which set a record, the Brazilian Leônidas and Ronaldo also stopped at 8.
At the very end of the first half, the Swedes also had a great opportunity, Elliot Stroud could have bombed a ball bouncing off a French defender cleanly into the goal, but he shot meters above it. In the second half, the French supremacy became even more pressing, and in the 53rd minute they doubled their advantage, Bradley Barcola was teased nicely by Olise, who scored a big goal. The French then slowed down a bit, but they still had chances, and after the drinking break they stepped up again, Olise received a great ball from Mbappé, but he pushed it too far, so Zetterström got to it.
A few minutes later, however, in the opposite situation, Mbappé did not make a mistake: he scored his second goal after Olise was tripped up. With that, the match was practically decided, Didier Deschamps started to take his stars off the field, but the French remained in momentum, Barcola also had a very impressive move, where he laid two defenders with a trick, but he could not overcome Zetterström’s mind from a sharp angle. In the 89th minute, the Swedes got their second shot on goal, Viktor Gyökeres received a good ball, but Mike Maignan’s shot went down.
At the end, Maignan had another great save, so the Swedes didn’t get a makeover either, but based on the picture of the game and the statistics, they wouldn’t have really deserved it anyway. The French beat them very easily without any effort, and they can prepare against Paraguay, who took Germany by surprisewhich, based on their game on Tuesday, could end in a similarly big beating. It is certain that Kylian Mbappé will do everything for this, because he is now on 6 goals, that is, he is tied with Lionel Messi in the race for the golden boot, and in total he has 18 goals in the World Cup, which surpassed Miroslav Klose, and is again only one goal behind Messi.
