France 3-1 Senegal: Kylian Mbappé Double Inspires World Cup Victory

France claimed their first three points of this year’s World Cup with a convincing 3-1 victory over Senegal.

However, the final scoreline does not tell the full story of what proved to be a tale of two very different halves.

During the opening 45 minutes, Didier Deschamps’ side looked a shadow of their usual selves.

France were sloppy, predictable, and lacked any attacking spark, managing only one shot on target. Kylian Mbappé had several opportunities to break through on goal, but his heavy touches repeatedly let him down, making him look far removed from the explosive player fans have become accustomed to seeing.

Senegal, meanwhile, looked by far the more dangerous side and arguably should have gone into the interval at least one goal ahead.

Nicolas Jackson struck the post before, moments before half-time, Ismaïla Sarr squandered a glorious opportunity to put his side 1-0 in front.

Whatever was said in the French dressing room at half-time clearly worked wonders.

France emerged completely revitalised for the second half, with Michael Olise and Mbappé suddenly looking much more like their usual selves again.

The breakthrough arrived when Olise produced a moment of genuine quality, threading a perfectly timed through ball into Mbappé, who calmly finished into the bottom-left corner.

Then, with just 15 minutes remaining, substitute Bradley Barcola made an immediate impact from the bench. This time it was Adrien Rabiot who provided the delightful through pass, allowing the Paris Saint-Germain winger to finish in sumptuous fashion.

Senegal did manage to pull one back in the closing stages through Mbaye, reducing the deficit to 2-1, but there was never any real sense of panic from France.

Instead, just moments later, Mbappé produced an absolute screamer from 35 yards to restore the two-goal advantage and put the result beyond doubt.

That strike marked Mbappé’s 57th goal for France, overtaking Olivier Giroud to become the nation’s all-time leading goalscorer.

As if that milestone were not enough, the Real Madrid forward now sits just two goals shy of Miroslav Klose’s all-time FIFA World Cup scoring record of 16 goals.

Ultimately, Senegal were left to rue their missed chances and, after an extremely nervy first half, France delivered exactly the kind of second-half response expected from one of the tournament favourites.