Mbappe brace guides France to quarter finals past Poland

Kylian Mbappe scored a stunning brace and also provided an assist as France brushed aside Poland by 3-1 to secure their place in the quarter finals of the World Cup at the Al Thumama Stadium on Sunday evening. Olivier Giroud opened the scoring a minute before the break to become France’s all-time leading goal scorer […]

Kylian Mbappe scored a stunning brace and also provided an assist as France brushed aside Poland by 3-1 to secure their place in the quarter finals of the World Cup at the Al Thumama Stadium on Sunday evening.

Olivier Giroud opened the scoring a minute before the break to become France’s all-time leading goal scorer going past Thierry Henry’s 51 goals for the Les Blues.

France have lost just one of their seven knockout games in the World Cup under Didier Deschamps, the last being the 2014 Quarter Final against eventual winners Germany.

The defending Champions will now await the winners of the England Senegal encounter.

Poland, however, should have taken the lead in the 38th minute had they not spurned three glorious chances in a span of 5 seconds as France held on.

Piotr Zelinski smashed a thunderous shot straight to French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris from 13 yards before his follow up was blocked by left back Theo Hernandez. Raphael Varane then cleared Jakub Kaminski’s effort off the line as the Les Blues looked shaky in defense.

Giroud breaks the record

Six minutes later, Giroud opened the scoring of the night, receiving a neat through ball from Mabppe in the inside left channel and then slotting a calm and composed finish past the onrushing Wojciech Szczesny in the Polish goal.

Having fallen behind at half team seemed to have broken the Polish hearts who hardly got into the game after the break. Robert Lewandowski cut a lone figure in front and the Barcelona striker had to drop in midfield to aid in possession. However, the Poles lacked bite up front and hardly threatened Lloris in the French goal.

Mpabbe takes control

Mbappe made it 2-0 for the French in the 74th minute with a thunderous strike from the edge of the box past Szczesny at the near post. It was the PSG star’s fourth goal of the World Cup and despite France not in full flow, the Les Blues were cruising.

Soon it was 3-0 in the 91st minute, Mbappe once again smashed a curling effort in the right top corner, his fifth in Qatar and the 23-year-old leads the pack for the golden boot.

Poland got a consolation in the dying minutes of the game when Lewandowski slotted his penalty retake, after having missed the first effort, past Lloris to make it 3-1.

The French never had to up their momentum and hardly broke sweat sending a warning message to the rest of the remaining teams in the tournament.

Photo credit: IMAGO / Fotoarena