France’s captain Kylian Mbappe continued his rich form as he scored a brace against Iraq at Philadelphia on Monday. After the match was delayed due to thunder and lightning, Mbappe scored a stunning goal with his left leg in the 14th minute to give a lead to his team.
After the half-time break, the French striker once again found the back of the net in the 54th minute after Zaid Tahseen gave a faulty pass to goalkeeper. Ousmane Dembele was then able to put the game to bed as he scored in the 66th minute.
Mbappe’s brace took his World Cup goals tally to 16 goals, joint with second highest goal-scorer in the World Cup history, Miroslav Klose, whose record was broken by Lionel Messi.
Messi also scored a brace in Argentina’s 2-0 win against Austria on Monday and thus wrote his name in the history books.
“There is no saga [with Messi],” Mbappé said. “Leo has also scored, he scores and he will always score. I don’t watch what he does, otherwise I will have to do more. I only look at my team.
“When you score goals, you get closer to this sphere but I repeat: for me it’s more important to see our progression.”
Meanwhile, Mbappe made his 100th appearance for Les Bleus and head coach Didier Deschamps said records are meant to be broken.
“Records are made to be beaten,” France coach Didier Deschamps said after the game. “He has reached 100 caps, goals he will keep scoring many. Then, Messi, [Cristiano] Ronaldo. I’m not sure Kylian will play until the same age, but he will always score a lot of goals while he is on the pitch.
“He has the ability to put the record even higher.”
Reacting to delay in match due to lightning and thunder, Deschamps said, “In the dressing room during the break, we played cards. No, we were waiting because we had slots and they kept being pushed back. The most important for me and [Iraq coach] Graham Arnold was to have the 20 minutes to warm up again and not take any risks.
“It is the first time this has happened to me [a long break] and I hope it’s the last.”
France will face Norway on Friday.
