Qatar 2022: ‘On Fire’ Mbappe Leads France To Quarter-Finals

The French football team qualified easily for the quarter-finals of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, after beating their Polish counterparts, by three goals to one, on Sunday, at the the Al-Thumama stadium Doha.

The first half ended with a slight advantage (1-0) in favor of ‘le Blues’.
French striker Olivier Giroud opened the scoring at the end of the first period (44th minute). The AC Milan, who was playing his 117th match for the team, scored his 52nd goal for France, and in broke a record held by the former Gunner, Thierry Henry.

On an darting run by Kylian Mbappé between two defenders in the middle of the penalty area, Olivier Giroud, who was not in an offside position, found himself alone against the Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny, who could not cope with the French striker.

A few minutes earlier, while the score was at zero on either side – the Poles got a huge chance, the best of the match, at the 38th minute, when the strike of the Zielinski was pushed back thanks to an excellent save by Hugo Lloris.

The ball returned to the feet of the Polish forward but it was saved twice, including once on the goal line thanks to Raphael Varane who was – well placed and lucid to thwart Marcin Kaminski’s shot.

In the second half, and after multiple missed opportunities, the lads of Didier Deschamps, who took advantage of the spaces left by the Poles who tried to react by rushing in attack, doubled then tripled the advantage, through their Kylian Mbappé, author of two sumptuous goals.

At the quarter of an hour mark, from a counter-attack punctuated by three passes, Dembélé served Mbappé who, after rooting the defender, fired a shot from 20 meters into the top corner of Szczęsny, completely beaten.

In additional time (90 + 1), Mbappé was served by Marcus Thuram who came in as a substitute.

The PSG man sent a curled shot from the left corner which nestled in the net of a helpless Szczęsny.

Courtesy that goal, Mbappe tops the goal scoring chart on his own as the lead scorer at this stage of the competition.

A few minutes later, Poland managed to save some honor by scoring a goal through their star striker, Robert Lewandowski – who managed to convert a penalty in borrowed time (90 + 9).

The French team, although efficient and considered the strongest so far by many observers, has experienced some wavering in defense and conceded one goal per game since the start of the tournament.

Thanks to this flawless victory, France equals Poland in matches at the World Cup.

After qualification, the teammates of goalkeeper Hugo Lloris will have to face England in the quarter-finals on Saturday.