19-year- old’s goal sends France to next round
Fast, exciting and now the youngest scorer in France’s World Cup history.
Kylian Mbappe is the one.
At 19 years and 183 days, Mbappe became the youngest player to score for France’s national team on soccer’s biggest stage. And his reward was leading his squad into the round of 16 with a 1-0 victory over Peru on Thursday in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
“I’ve always said that the World Cup is a dream for any player,” said Mbappe, who was born a few months after France won the 1998 title. “It is a dream come true and I hope I will have more like this.”
With two wins from two matches in Group C, France is through to the next round with a match to spare. Peru was eliminated.
Paul Pogba, one of France’s best players, set up Mbappe’s goal in the 34th minute. Pogba beat his defender and passed to Olivier Giroud, who then Paul Pogba of France hits the ground after a challenge by Pedro Aquino of Peru during France’s 1-0 victory in Group C.
chipped the ball toward goal for Mbappe to easily tap in past goalkeeper Pedro Gallese.
France coach Didier Deschamps made two tactical adjustments after an underwhelming performance in the team’s opening win over Australia. He put Giroud and Blaise Matuidi in the starting lineup but kept the same 4-3-2-1 formation with Giroud up front.
Both used their speed
and passing to expose gaps in Peru’s back line.
Paolo Guerrero started for Peru after coming off the bench in the opening loss to Denmark. He came out with energy, but he cooled down after receiving a yellow card in the 23rd minute.
Guerrero nearly missed the World Cup before his doping ban was lifted by a Swiss judge before the tournament. France
goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was one of three opposing captains, along with Mile Jedinak of Australia and Simon Kjaer of Denmark, who signed a letter to FIFA supporting the lifting of the ban.
Guerrero had one of Peru’s best chances in the 87th minute from a free kick, but his attempt went right at Lloris.
“We gave it our best in two matches. We came into this match with a completely different set of expectations, but I have nothing to hold against my players,” Peru coach Ricardo Gareca said. “France is a hard team to harness. … France corrected its style over the course of the game, this proves that France is a great side.”
Gareca said in both games his team’s ball control created opportunities, “but we couldn’t finish, we couldn’t score.”
AUSTRALIA 1, DENMARK 1: Jedinak’s penalty kick gave Australia a draw against Denmark in Samara and new life. A loss would have made it nearly impossible for the Socceroos to advance to the next stage. Christian Eriksen scored in the opening minutes for Denmark, which has gone unbeaten in 17 straight international matches. But Jussuf Poulsen’s handball after a video review set up Jedinak’s opportunity in the 38th minute. for Brazil in a mostly unchanged lineup against Costa Rica on Friday at the World Cup.
Although Brazil coach Tite said Neymar still needs time to reach peak shape, he insisted he is not endangering the striker’s health.
“Yes, he will be playing. There’s no sacrifice here,” Tite said through a translator. “We want to win but the coach is not going to play around with a player’s health, the price would be too high to pay.”
Tite was expected to use the same 11 players that were held to a 1-1 draw by Switzerland in the team’s opening match, but right back Danilo was injured in the team’s final training session on Thursday and will be replaced by Fagner.
Neymar limped out of a training session on Tuesday after appearing to hurt his right ankle. But on Wednesday, the Brazilian soccer confederation posted photos and a video of Neymar training with the rest of the squad and said he was fine.