PLAYER RATINGS | France 3-0 Iraq: Kylian Mbappé hits double as thunderstorm interrupts match

France continued their impressive start to this year’s World Cup by seeing off a defensively sterm Iraq team in unforgiving weather conditions. Kylian Mbappé scored on both sides of a two-hour delay due to a thunderstorm over Philadelphia, before Ousmane Dembélé added a third.

The match

Didier Deschamps will have had Friday’s group-deciding fixture against Norway in mind when he picked the starting eleven in Philadelphia, as all of Lucas Digne, Manu Koné, and Bradley Barcola were drafted into the side.

The 54-year-old did insist in his pre-match press conference that the match against Iraq would pose its own challenge, though. “We’ll need to have the same serious approach and commitment,” he pointed out. “They’re not a small team, they qualified by beating Bolivia and drew against Spain. They’re a team which has a well-established 4-4-2 with two pivots.”

The immediate build-up was overshadowed by a thunderstorm warning which held fans up on their way into the stadium and cast doubt over whether the match would start on time. Iraq nevertheless faced a gust of France attacks from the very first whistle, with Mbappé notably getting a few shots away in the opening few minutes.

Having seen Lionel Messi pull clear in the all-time top scorer leaderboard earlier in the day, the France captain responded early on by opening the scoring with a long-distance effort. Receiving the ball back from Olise, the Real Madrid man found the far corner with a left-footed shot beyond Ahmed Basil’s reach.

The hydration break allowed Iraq to regroup and attack France with more purpose in the latter stages of the half. Ali Al-Hamadi, who had just come on for the captain Aymen Hussein, was notably able to get a shot away from the left-hand side. Les Bleus soon regained control of the match, though.

The latter stages of the half saw the rain return, however, and a thunderstorm warning at half-time prompted fans to evacuate and delayed the restart by an initial fifteen minutes. That delay eventually stretched to over two hours, owing to a thirty-minute counter which reset every time there was a lightning strike in the vicinity.

It took a while for France to find their groove again when the match resumed. Ten minutes in, though, they were gifted their second goal as Ousmane Dembélé intercepted a loose pass and found Mbappé in the middle for an open-goal finish.

From then on, the floodgates had opened and the French continued to stream forward. Michael Olise was again the creator for the third goal, playing Dembélé through in the box. The reigning Ballon d’Or recipient made no mistake in front of the goalkeeper.

Spaces did begin to open up in the France backline, however, and Graham Arnold’s men managed to carve out a few opportunities in the closing stages. A cross from Farji towards the back post would see Al Hamadi come close to sneaking a finish past Maignan, but for some pressure from William Saliba.

In any case, Les Bleus’ second group stage match will have solidified the effectiveness of their attacking set-up. The fluid understanding between Mbappé, Olise (the tournament’s joint top-assister), and Dembélé makes for an attack which no other team looks to be matching.

France player ratings

Mike Maignan, 6

Jules Koundé, 4 – The Barcelona man struggled on both sides of the thunderstorm delay, with his touch often letting him down and his crosses largely failing to reach his teammates. Replaced by Malo Gusto in the final ten minutes.

Dayot Upamecano, 6

William Saliba, 6

Lucas Digne, 5

Manu Koné, 6 – Brought in to replace Aurélien Tchouaméni and was particularly impressive in his efforts to break up play and keep French attacks moving along in the first half. 

Adrien Rabiot, 6

Ousmane Dembélé, 6 – Finally scored his first goal at a major tournament, shortly after assisting Mbappé’s third. The Ballon d’Or recipient will hope his second-half performance can be the catalyst for a World Cup worthy of his current status, having failed to make an impact before the break. Replaced by Désiré Doué twenty minutes from the end of the match.

Michael Olise, 7 – The Bayern Munich man was back in the position he occupied in the second half against Senegal, and had the same incisive impact. He came close to scoring himself, finding the crossbar in the second half, and assisted Dembélé’s goal. Replaced by Rayan Cherki midway through the second half.

Bradley Barcola, 6 – It’s increasingly evident that the winger is more suited to Deschamps’ four-man attack than his Paris Saint-Germain teammate Désiré Doué. The 23-year-old beat his man several times down the left wing and created a few chances, even if some of his crosses did not find a teammate.

Kylian Mbappé, 7 – The captain marked a century of France appearances with a double, equalling Miroslav Klose as the World Cup’s second all-time top scorer. Perhaps more impressively, he tracked back and won the ball in his own half on a couple of occasions. Replaced by Marcus Thuram in stoppage time.

GFFN | Raphaël Jucobin – reporting from Philadelphia