This champion stands firm in the face of his renewed challenge and does not admit surprises, no matter how much the recent history of this tournament dictates that winning a World Cup it implies being shipwrecked in the next one: the last four from Europe had been unable to win their first duel of the following World Cup. But France refused on Tuesday to bear the curse of the reigning winner and debuted in Qatar with great aplomb, overcoming the initial difficulties posed by Australia to later feast on the backs of two disparate guys and brothers in turn, Olivier Giroud and Kylian Mbappé.
The veteran striker left Russia four years ago with the paradox of being the champion striker without having scored a single goal. Slight thorn that was completely removed at its debut in Qatar, scoring a double. The young man, for his part, already presented his candidacy, still premature, to be one of the stars of this World Cup, with a goal and an assist and a half. So much for an Australia whose best virtue in the al janoub stadium it was his will. Little for a World Cup.
The match began on the wrong foot for a France in which Griezmann was the playmaker, with Dembélé and Mbappé on the flanks and Giroud taking the spearhead in the absence of Benzema. At nine minutes, misfortune was conjured against France, in a play in which Australia deepened on the right and Lucas Hernández was injured while covering Ledkie. With the Bayern man out of action, the Australian crossed and Goodwin finished off alone at the far post, free of the mark of a clueless Pavard.
Lucas’s injury
So much damage was done to Lucas that he could not continue in the game and his brother Theo had to take over in a France that had a hard time finding the point in the game, very low pulsation and slow in its transitions. Little by little, Deschamps’s team woke up, after another scare in the form of a distant whiplash from Duke, until the goals finally put her in tune.
The first was scored by Rabiot at 27 minutesafter a corner cleared by the ‘Aussies’, which Theo poisoned again with a diagonal cross in which the Juventus header headed at will. And five minutes later, Giroud scored on his second attempt, after sending the first one wide. Australia wanted to get the ball played but it is not something they are particularly good at. France ended up stealing his wallet and after a wall between Rabiot and Mbappé (the striker’s heel was beautiful), Giroud scored France’s second by pushing the ball into the small area.
From then on, France felt in their element, moving the ball comfortably and looking for the unmarking of Mbappé and Dembélé behind the backs of an Australia that seemed to fall apart like the ease of an ice cream placed at noon in one of the attempts at parks for trees that exist in the good areas of Doha. Only a header from Irvine to the paló disturbed the Frenchmen before the break.
two other goals
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France tightly gripped the reins of the game, preventing the oceanic team from getting on their beards. Australia tried to fight for a while, but succumbed after the second goal, as France scored them two by two.
In minute 68, Mbappé headed a Dembélé cross with hierarchy and three minutes later the PSG star put together a beautiful play down the left wing so that Giroud closed his World Cup debut with a brace. France was convinced that the same thing was not going to happen to it as to Argentina in the morningthat to Germany in 2018, that to Spain in 2014… And so it was. If she was already a clear candidate for the title in Qatar, now she is a tad more.