- Kylian Mbappe scored a second-half brace to send France through to the quarter-finals of the World Cup
- Antoine Griezmann fired France into the lead after 13 minutes with a penalty after Kylian Mbappe was fouled
- Just before half-time, Argentina drew level following a sensational long range strike from Angel Di Maria
- Three minutes into the second-half, Gabriel Mercado’s deflection put the South Americans into the lead
- Their lead did not last long though as Benjamin Pavard produced an emphatic bending effort from distance
- Mbappe then produced a moment of magic in the box before finishing off a well-worked attacking move
- Sergio Aguero pulled a goal back in second-half stoppage time but it proved to be just a consolation effort
The conversation had been about a No 10 who was supposedly predestined to take his nation on and on, confounding every expectation and setback. ‘El General de Gol’ was Buenos Aires paper Ole’s way of encapsulating Argentinian matchday belief in Lionel Messi.
But there was a changing of the guard in every way at a searing, quite sublime game which will be talked about for years and may come to define this tournament.
The No 10 who seized it by throat was Kylian Mbappe, who powered France to the quarter finals, scoring two and winning the penalty which secured a third.
The aged, creaking, inadequate Argentine defence was simply blown away, just as it had been 20 years ago to the day when an English forward wearing the very same number – Michael Owen – made the nation looked very ordinary in St Etienne.
The game was only minutes old when the first sense came of all that was to follow. You knew almost from the outset that, for all of Messi’s sublimity, the game cannot belong to one individual alone when those behind him are not strong.
Jorge Sampaoli was asked on the eve of this match whether the average age differential – Argentina 30, France 25 – might cause him concern and he replied that his own players must not allow their opponents the chance to exploit it. Such good intentions were reduced to dust when the 19-year-old Kylian Mbappe started running at Argentina like an express train.
Central defenders Marcos Rojo amd Nicolas Otamendi were simply not remotely equipped to cope and when Ever Banega offered up possession to the PSG player in the game’s 12th minute, he exploited the opportunity with a devastating acceleration.
Mbappe eased past the ageing Javier Mascherano and had done the same to Rojo when the defender brought him to ground with something little less than an assault which began outside of the area and ended inside. There were echoes of Owen’s exploits in that run. There have been few more clear cut penalties than the one which Antoine Griezmann slotted left footed to Franco Armani’s left.
It was the balance in the French side which made them look so fundamentally superior. Ngolo Kante was the heartbeat of a secure midfield. Paul Pogba was the axis between defence and attacking movement, even though his first half ball retention was not impeccable. And the French defence looked resolute.
But it was the looming threat of Mbappe which looked like it might end the contest. Pogba saw this. When he sought the forward with a probing long ball soon after the goal,Nicolas Tagliafico brought the No 10 to ground and, like Rojo, was booked. Pogba’s next missile went in search of Griezmann, who whipped around Rojo but could not find a telling cross.
Messi was on the game’s margins and when Cristian Pavon levelled crosses, there was no striker in the six-yard box to receive them. All of which made Angel di Maria’s strike five minutes before half time more priceless, when it arrived, than any goal he has scored in the colours of his nation.
His own tournament had been indifferent, bringing just one shot on goal and only a third of his runs with the ball have rendered a successful pass. But the French allowed him a few yards space, 30 yards out, he arced a left foot shot past Samuel Umtiti and on beyond the dive of Hugo Lloris, leaping to his left. At 30.2 yards out, it was the longest range goal of the tournament so far.
Argentina’s second goal gave life to the sense that, in spite of everything, they have some other force behind them. Di Maria nutmegged Benjamin Pavard and drew a free-kick, which had been headed clear by Pogba when Messi’s speculative shot was turned in by Pavon.
But the truth told. Argentina’s lead lasted for nine minutes, before Pavard amended for his error, slicing across the ball which reached him from Matuidi to depatch a half volley which flew across Armani.
Then Mbappe’s four-minute contribution which turned the game back into this nation’s grasp and marked him as a player to be talked about for years. Lurking in the area, he seized a loose ball after Matiuidi’s shot had been blocked, took it to Armani’s left and slotted in.
His second was the culmination of a four-pass move which cut away a desperately failing South American defence. Matuidi and Olivier Giroud manouvered the ball into his ambit on the right hand side of the area and he did not blink.
Messi made a vain late attempt to wrest the game back towards his side, running at the French defence and twice threatening to score. Then he whipped in a cross which Sergio Aguero, a substitute, headed home. But this breathless, relentless match belonged to a number 10 in blue. It was Mbappe’s day.
UK MAIL
Be the first to comment