EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — France's fearsome foursome of Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise and Bradley Barcola leaves opponents exclaiming: Sacré bleu!
“Their four up front is the best in the competition by far,” Norway coach Ståle Solbakken said.
France became the first nation to score three or more goals in five consecutive World Cup matches when it beat Sweden 3-0 Tuesday and advanced to a round of 16 match against Paraguay this weekend.
Seeking to reach their third straight World Cup final, Les Bleus are a favorite to dethrone defending champion Argentina.
“There is something that we cannot hide, that we have a lot of quality in the team," French midfielder N’Golo Kanté said. ”But I think it’s the same for many other teams. We cannot see ourselves too beautiful or too strong."
After defeating the Czech Republic for the 2018 title,France lost to Argentina on penalty kicks in the 2022 final. Les Bleus are 4-0 in this year's tournament, outscoring opponents 13-2.
“We always have to be more and more demanding because the opponents that we’re going to face are going to be demanding,” France coach Didier Deschamps said. “We need to fine-tune things and transform some negative points. Even though we didn’t have a lot of consequences, we did concede two goals.”
Mbappé is tied with Argentina’s Lionel Messi with a tournament-high six goals after getting his third brace Tuesday. Dembélé is tied for fourth with four goals.
Olise leads with five assists, while Mbappe and Dembele have two apiece. Barcola has a goal and two assists.
Mbappé scored 18 goals in 18 World Cup games, one behind Messi’s career record of 19 in 29 matches.
“I know that I do have qualities but I do have to show them on the largest stage that is the World Cup,” Mbappé said.
France is using a 4-2-3-1 formation and Deschamps allows freedom to be fluid.
“They come in different positions. They’re not static,” Swedish forward Viktor Gyökeres said. “They know each other well in how they move and their connection between each other.”
Captain of France’s 1998 champions, Deschamps took over as manager in 2012 and announced in January he will retire this summer. The victory over Sweden was his record 18th as a World Cup coach.
Les Bleus scored 14 goals over seven games in winning the 1998 World Cup, 12 when it captured its second title in 2018 and 16 four years ago.
“We’re very much more offensive than in 2018 and in 2022,” Mbappé said through a translator. “It’s the continuity of what we started to build throughout Didier Deschamps’ tenure over the last 14 years. You can see the evolution, his personal touch, and the arrival of a lot of young talent.”
France has overtaken Argentina for No. 1 in FIFA's rankings. Its four wins have come against teams currently ranked 18th (Senegal), 63rd (Iraq), 21st (Norway) and 37th (Sweden).
Paraguay, its next opponent Saturday, is 34th. Potential quarterfinal opponents include Morocco (sixth) and Canada (30th). Spain (No. 3) looms as a semifinal opponent.
Sweden coach Graham Potter proclaims France is the best team he's seen in the tournament.
“Because of the players in the wide areas, sometimes you have the double up on them because they could just beat you in 1-v.-1 situations,” he said. “And then they’ve got not a bad striker in the middle. So you’ve got problems here and you’ve got problems here. And then it can also build up with good control, strong center backs, so direct football isn’t easy against them either."
France is bidding to become just the third nation to reach three straight World Cup finals after Germany (1982-90) and Brazil (1994-2002).
“We have really good memories, also bad ones with what happened the last time that we played the World Cup,” said midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni, a member of the 2022 team. “Everybody is ready to fight and to give everything to make sure that all the French people are going to be proud of us.”
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