France Beat Sweden 3-0 as Kylian Mbappé Stars

Football World Cup Round of 32:

France - 3

Sweden - 0

The star French striker, Kylian Mbappe, once again put up an inspired performance in their Round of 32 match against Sweden. The forward from Real Madrid scored twice and was in scintillating form as France beat Sweden 3-0 on Tuesday to set up a last 16-last clash with Paraguay who knocked out former champions, Germany from the tournament.

Mbappe finished an excellent move to break the Swedish defence only a few minutes before the half-time whistle, after France had already hit the net twice before, once through Mbappe and once through Olise. The match was watched by more than 80,000 people at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

The French were on top of their game for almost the entire duration of the game against a limited Swedish side, and dominated the proceedings in terms of both ball possession and shots on goal. Olise set up PSG winger Bradley Barcola for the second on 53 minutes and then delivered an excellent pass for Mbappe who sweetly completed the securing a convincing victory for France.

After Mbappe scored twice in the round of 32 match, he now sits level with the Argentine great, Lionel Messi on goals and found himself in the all-star race for the Golden Boot. The France captain now has 18 World Cup goals overall, and is just one goal behind Messi’s record of 19, a mark which the 27-year-old French footballer will keep chasing.

Mbappe celebrated his first goal in the match by running across the field to embrace their coach, Didier Deschamps who missed the final group game match against Norway to travel home to attend his mother’s funeral. Deschamps is set to step down as the French coach at the end of the World Cup 2026 after being in charge of the national team for 14 years, and enjoying great success along the way.

Going out in the last 32 would have been an anti-climatic way to depart for Deschamps, who was the captain of the France team that won the World Cup for the first time in 1998. He had also coached them to the ultimate glory in 2018.

Way back in 1998, France’s run to the World Cup victory included a 1-0 win over Paraguay in the last-16 game. It was Laurent Blanc who scored a golden goal in the extra time 28 years ago. The Les Blues will face the team from South America in the last 16 again on Saturday in Philadelphia. Considering the red hot form they are in, they are the favourite and will be expected to win and march on to the semi-finals.

In the win against Sweden, Olise and Mbappe were the central figures, with Ousmane Dembele showing flashes of brilliant play while Barcola was preferred over Desire Doue as the fourth forward.

Sweden too has some great players in their team, with the Premier League trio of Viktor Gyokeres, Anthony Elanga and Alexander Isak. However, they couldn't get enough of the ball to create chances, and now Graham Potter’s team has to go home.