EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — France’s fearsome quartet of Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Oliseh and Bradley Barcola made opponents scream “Sacre Bleu!”
Norway coach Starre Solbakken said, “Their front four are the best in this tournament.”
France became the first country to score three or more goals in five consecutive World Cup matches. 3-0 victory over Sweden The match was played on Tuesday, advancing to this weekend’s Round of 16 match against Paraguay. Les Bleus aim to reach the World Cup finals for the third consecutive year and are the favorites to dethrone defending champions Argentina.
“There’s something we can’t hide, that we have a lot of quality in the team,” said French midfielder N’Golo Kante. “But I think it’s the same for a lot of other teams. We can’t make ourselves too beautiful or too strong.”
After defeating Croatia 2018 titleFrance lost to Argentina in a penalty shootout. 2022 finals. Les Bleus outscored their opponents 13-2 in this tournament, giving them a 4-0 record.
France coach Didier Deschamps said: “The opponents we will face will be tough, so we must always be more demanding.” “We need to fine-tune things and change some negatives. We conceded two goals, even if it didn’t bring big results.”
Mbappe was tied with Argentina’s Lionel Messi. 6 goals, the most in the tournament After getting braces for the third time on Tuesday. Dembele is tied for fourth with four goals.
Olise led the way with five assists, while Mbappé and Dembele each had two. Barcola had one goal and two assists.
Mbappe has scored 18 goals in 18 World Cup games and is now one goal behind. messi career record 19 losses out of 29 games.
“I know I have the qualities, but I have to show it on the biggest stage, the World Cup,” Mbappe said.
France uses a 4-2-3-1 formation, allowing Deschamps a lot of fluid freedom.
“They come in different positions. They are not fixed,” Swedish forward Viktor Gökeres said. “They know how to move with each other and how to connect with each other.”
Deschamps is a constant in France’s success
Deschamps, who was captain of the 1998 French champion team, became manager in 2012 and announced his appointment in January. I will retire this summer. The win against Sweden was his 18th as a World Cup manager.
Les Bleus scored 14 goals in seven games when they won the World Cup in 1998, 12 in 2018 when they won their second title and 16 four years ago.
“We are much more aggressive than we were in 2018 or 2022,” Mbappe said through an interpreter. “This is a continuity of what we started to build during Didier Deschamps’ tenure over the last 14 years. You can see the evolution, his personal touch and the emergence of a lot of young talent.”
France has surpassed Argentina to take first place in the FIFA rankings. The fourth win came against teams currently ranked 18th (Senegal), 63rd (Iraq), 21st (Norway) and 37th (Sweden).
Saturday’s next opponent, Paraguay, is ranked 34th. Possible opponents in the quarterfinals are Morocco (6th place) and Canada (30th place). Spain (3rd place) will be their opponent in the semi-finals.
make a good impression on your opponents
Sweden coach Graham Potter declared France the best team he had seen in the tournament.
“Sometimes you double up on them because they can beat you in one-on-one situations because of the guys in the wide areas,” he said. “And they don’t have a bad striker in the middle, so there are problems here and there are problems here as well. And direct football is also not easy against them because they can also build up with good control and strong centre-backs.”
France is aiming to become the third country to reach three consecutive World Cup finals, after Germany (1982-90) and Brazil (1994-2002).
“We have really good memories, but we also have bad ones about what happened the last time we played in the World Cup,” said midfielder Aurélien Choameny, a member of the 2022 squad. “We are all ready to fight and will do everything we can to make all French people proud of us.”
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This article has been corrected to say France defeated Croatia, not the Czech Republic, in the 2018 final.
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