France once again had Kylian Mbappé to thank as they booked their place in the round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup, with the captain scoring his fifth and sixth goals of the tournament in a 3-0 win to eliminate European rivals Sweden.
Mbappé broke the deadlock just before half-time, cutting in from the left flank and firing a rasping effort inside the post from a tight angle with a shot which registered only 0.05 xG but left Swedish goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterström with no chance.
The attacker immediately
made a move pointing to coach Didier Deschamps to celebrate with him, as Deschamps was back on the touchline after missing the win over Norway to return to France for his mother’s funeral after her passing last week.
Just shy of 30 minutes into the second period, Mbappé struck again from a remarkably similar angle to make it 3-0. The goal keeps him joint top on the goalscoring charts with Argentina’s Lionel Messi with six goals each.
In midfield, Aurélien Tchouameni also continued and played the full 90 minutes in a double pivot. He completed 62 passes with a 93% completion rate in the middle, including eight into the final third, and was powerful defensively with five successful duels and seven recoveries.
The French national team will now take on Paraguay at the Philadelphia Stadium on Saturday, July 4th. The winner would then face either Canada or Morocco in Boston on Thursday, July 9th, in the quarter-final, before a semi-final on Tuesday, July 14th, in Dallas, which could be against Spain.
