NEW YORK:
France beat Sweden 3-0 with an impressive performance to book their place in the pre-quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup where they will now face Paraguay.
The hero of the victory was captain Kylian Mbappe, who scored two goals and set a new world record.
Despite the high heat, the French team kept the pressure on Sweden from the start. After missing a few chances in the first half, Kylian Mbappe finally gave his team the lead before the break after a beautiful pass from Ousmane Dembele, eluding the defender and sending the ball into the net.
At the start of the second half, Bradley Barkula scored the second goal after a great pass from Michael Olisse to give France a boost.
In the 74th minute of the match, Mbappe scored his second goal and the third goal of the team with a beautiful finish, once again on a beautiful pass from Olesya and ended all hopes of a return to Sweden.
In this match, Kylian Mbappe became the highest scorer in the history of the knockout stage of the World Cup with 2 goals and 10 goals.
Apart from this, he is also joint leader in the Golden Boot race with Argentina’s Lionel Messi with six goals in the current tournament.
Sweden had some chances, but the French goalkeeper Mike Magnan did a good job of defending and did not give the opponent a chance to score.
Now France’s next test will be against Paraguay in the semi-finals, who advanced to the next round by beating Germany on penalties yesterday.
