ARTIGO | Três lições que aprendemos com a classificação da França para as oitavas de final da Copa do Mundo

The weather threatened to take away all the attention as a lightning storm caused the first ever World Cup weather delay and a half-time break that lasted two hours. However, when the players did make it onto the pitch, France eased to a 3-0 win over Iraq which confirmed their qualification for the knock-out stages, maintained the positive dynamic up-front but didn’t allay all defensive concerns.

Anything you can do…

After his two goals against Senegal, Kylian Mbappé edged ahead of Lionel Messi, 14 to 13, in their dual to become the World Cup’s all time leading scorer. Hours later Messi scored a hat-trick against Algeria to leapfrog the Frenchman again and his brace earlier today against Austria saw him overtake Miroslav Klose’s tally of 17 and take the outright lead in the tournament’s all-time scoring chants. Against Iraq, Mbappé – on his 100th appearance for les Bleus – responded with another brace, moving within one of Klose and two of Messi. Mbappé’s 16 goals have come from only 16 matches (compared to Messi’s 28) – an outstanding goalscoring rate.

As for assists, Michael Olise set up Mbappé for the first; Ousmane Dembélé the second after a horrific Iraqi defensive mix-up.

Lift-off for Dembélé?

Dembélé had rarely impressed in a France shirt, had never scored in either a World Cup or a European Championship and looked to be struggling with the expectation that comes with being the reigning Ballon d’Or. For the first 50 minutes or so, while brighter than against Senegal, Dembélé still didn’t look quite on the same wavelength as Mbappé and Olise. However, his assist, albeit a gift, appeared to lift a weight from Dembélé’s shoulders and within minutes he had forced the keeper into a save and scored his first ever major tournament goal – from another Olise assist. Although the two of them were substituted immediately after the goal, his two goal contributions will hopefully free him for the matches to come.

Didier Deschamps’ three first team changes have a mixed night

The fourth of France’s front four was Bradley Barcola, rewarded for his goal off the bench against Senegal with a starting berth at club team-mate Desiré Doué’s expense. He took his chance well, seemingly much more willing or able to change positions across the front line to make up for the movement of his team-mates, Mbappé in particular. Doué may have lost his starting place.

Although Manu Koné may find it harder to shift vice-captain Aurelien Tchouameni from France’s starting XI, he put in an impressive performance in midfield, winning numerous balls from the opposition, interchinging well with Adrien Rabiot and always available to keep France moves going.

As for Lucas Digne, his defensive showing was solid enough, although it is hard to judge against a tidy but limited side who lost their best attacker to injury midway through the first half. That being the case, he had the opportunity to impress going forward but his crossing was poor and his overall performance was not enough to make him the obvious first choice ahead of Theo Hernandez. And while France secured their first clean sheet in seven matches, they still managed to contrive a couple of hairy moments, the likes of which will be punished if repeated later in the tournament.

GFFN | Jeremy Smith