Mbappe’s record-breaking brace sends France past Senegal at the World Cup

France took their time, then took the game. After a first half in which Senegal carved out the better chances and might have led, Kylian Mbappe settled the contest with two goals and Bradley Barcola added a third as one of the tournament favourites ran out 3-1 winners at MetLife Stadium overnight. By the end Mbappe had also rewritten France’s record books, moving clear of Olivier Giroud as his country’s all-time leading scorer.

Senegal made France wait

For 45 minutes this did not look like a France procession. Senegal were sharper, braver, and twice came close to taking the lead. Nicolas Jackson rattled the post, and Ismaila Sarr fluffed a presentable chance from close range when a goal looked the easier option. Didier Deschamps, in what is set to be his final tournament in charge, watched his side struggle to string passes together and offer little going forward.

The shape of the night changed after the break, and it changed largely because of one player. Michael Olise dropped into the spaces between Senegal’s lines and began to pull the game towards France, threading the passes that had been missing in the first half.

Mbappe and Barcola turn it around

The breakthrough arrived just after the hour, in the 66th minute. Mbappe, quiet until then, found a yard of space and finished to give France a lead their second-half play had started to deserve. Olise supplied the pass, as he did for much of what followed.

Barcola made it 2-0 in the 82nd minute, punishing a Senegal side that had pushed forward in search of a way back into the game and left gaps behind. Senegal did pull one back through teenager Ibrahim Mbaye deep in stoppage time, a goal that briefly threatened a nervous finish, but Mbappe ended it almost immediately, picking up the ball, turning and slamming a 30-yard strike into the top corner to make it 3-1.

Mbappe passes Giroud and Messi

The second goal carried more than three points. It was Mbappe’s 58th for France, taking him past Giroud’s 57 and making him his country’s outright record scorer. It also lifted his World Cup tally past Lionel Messi’s, leaving him two short of Miroslav Klose’s all-time World Cup record of 16 goals.

France will reflect on a sloppy first half and a penalty appeal that went against them in the second, but Deschamps will care far more about the three points. A tournament that many expect to be his last as France manager has begun the way the favourites needed it to, even if the performance lagged behind the result for an hour.

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