IN THIS MOOD NOTHING CAN STOP MBAPPE
ALL the stars seem to have aligned for Kylian Mbappe.
I don’t see anyone being able to stop him in the World Cup final. Croatia won’t stop him or this excellent French team, who have youth and experience.
I don’t see the occasion inhibiting him and there is not a defender on the planet who can stop him.
He is a man in that moment. In a place where he feels hot. You wake up feeling the body is great. You know exactly what to do with every ball that comes into you.
We knew he was quick but he looks quicker than ever and he will score.
Those Croatian defenders will be having some dark thoughts tonight trying to work out how to stop Mbappe.
The very thought should scare them – it is like walking into a ring with Mike Tyson.
There is nothing tactically or technically you can do to your game as an individual to stop someone like that.
He is going to be the star. But France have other players who have been there and done it.
I have not seen Mbappe flinch yet. He has not once blinked under the pressure.
He doesn’t strike me as the type who will crumble.
He is only 19 and it’s remarkable what he has managed to achieve at that age.
I watched him closely in the semi-final against Belgium and I could see he is enjoying himself. He is enjoying the role he is playing for his national side.
He didn’t start the competition with such high ambitions but as the competition has gone on he has become their go-to player.
France played tighter and more defensively against Belgium in the semifinal and it worked. They looked a better side. But that presents them with a dilemma against Croatia tomorrow. Should they switch back to their tactic of really taking a game to the opposition or repeat their Belgium approach?
France are strong favourites but Croatia have been underestimated this tournament and they have world-class players.
What England have in youth, France have in youth AND experience. Their midfield is strong and powerful and at a good age. They are solid defensively and strikers Olivier Giroud and Antoine Griezmann (above) have been mixing it at top clubs for years.
France have just got a bit more than Croatia. They won’t let them off the hook like England did.