France sailed through to the Round of 16 at the World Cup after a scintillating attacking performance swept aside Graham Potter’s Sweden. France, managed by Didier Deschamps in what will be his final tournament in charge of Les Blues, took control of their Last 32 tie early on in the first half, proving far too strong for a Sweden team that looked completely out-classed, despite having two of English football’s best strikers, Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres of Liverpool and Arsenal respectively. It did take France a while to break through; various attempts by the likes of Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe, PSG’s Ousmane Dembele and Bayern Munich’s Michael Olise were all denied by a stoic Swedish defence, with Olise’s stunning overhead kick attempt in the 36th minute hitting the outside of the post. Just before half-time, regrettably for Sweden, their brave defence was brought to an end, as Olise played a low ball into the box, which found the feet of Mbappe following a French corner. Gyokeres, completely out of his depth tried to challenge Mbappe, but failed, as the 27 year old striker danced around him, before firing it into the corner. Two goals followed in the second half; Bradley Barcola scored his second goal of the tournament ten minutes after the restart, and the Mbappe show continued with 15 minutes remaining, as he scored his sixth goal of the tournament, and 18th World Cup goal overall, to seal a comfortable win for the 1998 and 2018 World Champions. Mbappe’s 18th World Cup goal puts him just one behind Argentina’s Lionel Messi, who next plays at the tournament on Friday against Cape Verde. France will now go up against giant killers Paraguay in the next round, who conquered Germany on Monday night.
England return to action against DR Congo from 5pm in Atlanta tonight, in a match that could set up a mouth-watering tie against Mexico at the Azteca Stadium after they won their Last 32 tie 2-0 last night. Goals from Julian Quinones and Raul Jiminez, Mexico’s two goalscorers in their opening game against South Africa last month see them awaiting their challengers in the next round. England boss Thomas Tuchel is cautious about tonight’s fixture, saying he wants his players to be “patient”, and that he is expecting “narrow, narrow” margins against a Congolese side coached by Sebastien Desabre. Tuchel’s gone so far to say that penalties could be a reality in the tie. Tonight’s two other fixtures see what should be a closely fought fixture as Group G winners Belgium go up against Senegal at 9pm in Seattle, while the prime-time slot has gone to co-hosts USA; led by former Spurs coach Mauricio Pochettino at 1am in San Francisco, who’s opponents are a Bosnia-Herzegovina ranked 64th in the world. The eyes of the globe will be on the US, and whether they’ll make it 3 out of 3 co-hosts to make it into the next round.
Luke Watson will be keeping us up to date on World Cup 2026
