DOHA, Qatar | France continued their defense of their world title with a 3-1 win over Poland, who signed Kylian Mbappé and Olivier Giroud.
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The former scored two goals and an assist, the latter scoring one goal and falling short of the streak that led to Mbappé’s first goal and set a French team record.
Despite what the result might suggest, the French didn’t exactly have it easy against an aggressive and resilient Poland.
They also received a penalty shot at the very end of the game on a video review that confirmed a hand. Robert Lewandowski was stopped by Hugo Lloris, who left his line too early. The Pole continued his shot and scored to honor (90+9).
Giroud record holder
The Blues waited until the 44th minute before opening the scoring. Olivier Giroud, started from a pass by Kylian Mbappé, went past two defenders to defeat Wojciech Sczesny.
Aside from the importance of that goal on the board, it allowed Giroud to become the only goalscorer in the history of the French team with 52 goals, a record he achieved in his 116th selection.
He had shared the mark with Thierry Henry since last week when he scored a brace against Australia. Henry scored his 51 goals in 123 games.
Saying that Giroud is often seen as unloved and that he is mostly in favor of it because Karim Benzema had to retire due to injury. It’s a nice form of justice for the AC Milan veteran.
And he had a great game with three clear chances, a second goal called for injured players and two overhead kicks.
An artist
Mbappé has once again imposed his dominance on this encounter, he who has a record of five goals and two assists in three games at this World Cup.
For some athletes, sport is art. Mbappé is a grandmaster and the grass is his canvas.
He has a second and a third gear and when you think his roofer is running with you, he ends up overtaking you with a force that comes from who knows where.
But with his goal in the 74th minute, he practically stopped the game, Ousmane Dembele.
The latter then sent the ball towards Mbappé in the top right corner of the Polish surface, where he had plenty of time to put the ball back on his right foot to send it into the top corner while two opposing defenders looked on.
On his second success, he still had time to place the ball on his right foot, despite being surrounded by Poles, to send a rocket into the opponent’s corner in injury time (90+1).
Opposite styles
We saw two contrasting styles. The French offered a fluid game, a quilt of finely crafted precise passes.
In the second half, the Blues had terrific ball possession sequences in which the Poles were practically spectators.
These weren’t unworthy, quite the contrary, but their ball movements were more square.
We were more into the rough game worthy of the image we have of Eastern Europe from another era. And we’re not writing this to hurt them, but to point out a certain lack of sophistication given the French game.
collector
Granted, France played an effective game and were more enterprising, but Poland fought bitterly.
The Red-Whites had their chances, especially in the first half, and were able to destabilize the French defense. Hugo Lloris also had to perform a small miracle, followed by a save from Raphaël Varane on the goal line.
But the Poles are said to excel in suffering and have proved it on many occasions.
With Arturo Gatti’s chin, they took the French’s attacks without batting an eyelash except twice, but they got up anyway.