Mbappé gives Poland no option

Mbappé gives Poland no option

A double from the PSG striker at Giroud's party, already the top scorer in history for the 'Bleus', puts France in the quarterfinals

MADRID, 4 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The French team has advanced to the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Qatar after beating Poland this Sunday in their round of 16 match (3-1), who had no choice against a superlative Kylian Mbappé who crowned his spectacular performance with a brace that closed the victory initiated by Olivier Giroud, from now on all-time top scorer of the French team.

The Milan attacker opened the can before the break with his 52nd goal with the 'Bleus', which allows him to surpass a legend like Thierry Henry, but the Paris Saint-Germain 'killer' was the great protagonist of a duel that ended with a couple of goals that made the Polish reaction impossible. Now, Didier Deschamps' men are already waiting for the winner of England-Senegal in the quarterfinals.

The siege of the defending champion was total in the first quarter of an hour of the clash at the Al Thumama Stadium; Raphaël Varane tried to surprise with a header from a corner that went over the crossbar and Ousmane Dembélé also tested Szczesny with a shot at the far post that was blocked by the Polish goalkeeper.

Robert Lewandowski, after 20 minutes, responded with a long shot that forced Hugo Lloris's stretch, before Olivier Giroud missed a very clear chance at the goal mouth in a play that the referee finally annulled for offside prior to Dembele.

However, he was able to recover, after a shot from Piotr Zielinski that Lloris first disrupted and that the French defense took under the posts in the second shot, on the brink of halftime; Kylian Mbappé yielded inside the area for the AC Milan forward, who beat Szczesny with a cross shot (min.44) before celebrating his 52nd goal with the 'Bleus', which allows him to overcome Thierry Henry and become the France's all-time top scorer.

Mbappé also wanted to join the party and opened the festival of chances in the second half with a shot that skimmed the post after touching Grzegorz Krychowiak and which he continued with an impressive Chilean kick from Giroud that ended up deep in the net but did not get on the scoreboard due to a previous foul by Varane on the Polish goalkeeper.

The Paris Saint-Germain striker did not fail in the 74th minute, when Antoine Griezmann started a counterattack and the Barcelona player Dembélé assisted him to, after cutting inside, shoot and put the momentary 2-0. His hunger did not stop and, already in the discount, he took a spectacular shot inside the area that slipped through the entire squad.

With everything resolved, in the 99th minute, Lewandowski was in charge of making up the result from the penalty spot on his second attempt, after Lloris went ahead to save the first shot and the referee forced it to be repeated. France is already riding towards the quarterfinals.

--RESULT: FRANCE, 3 - POLAND, 1 (1-0 at halftime).

FRANCE: Lloris; Koundé (Disasi, min.92), Varane, Upamecano, Theo Hernandez; Tchouameni (Fly, min.64), Rabiot; Dembele (Coman, min.76); Griezmann, Mbappe and Giroud (Thuram, min.76).

POLONIA: Szczesny; Bereszynski, Glik, Kiwior (Bednarek, min.86), Cash; Szymanski (Milik, min. 64), Zielinski, Krychowiak (Bielik, min. 71), Frankowski (Grosicki, min. 87); Kaminski (Zalewski, min.71) and Lewandowski.

1-0, min.44: Giroud.

2-0, min.74: Mbappé.

3-0, min.91: Mbappe.

3-1, min.99: Lewandowski, de penalty.

--REFEREE: Jesús Valenzuela (VEN). He admonished Aurélien Tchouméni (min.32) for France and Bartosz Bereszynski (min.47) and Matty Cash (min.88) for Poland.

--STADIUM: Al Thumama.