EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — For the first two-thirds of the France-Senegal game here Tuesday afternoon, Kylian Mbappé looked out of sorts. He wasn’t sharp dribbling the ball, and he appeared a step behind everything, every pass just out of reach. As the match went on, he appeared to grow visibly frustrated.
In the 64th minute, France’s Michael Olise was leading a charge upfield when he threaded a pass through the defense as Mbappé darted open toward the net. Mbappé lunged for the ball — but couldn’t quite get there and handle it cleanly. He grimaced and pinched the air with his thumb and index finger to say he was this close. The whole game had gone like that for France. It had managed just one shot in the first half, and it wasn’t on goal.
But a few minutes later, Olise again had the ball in the Senegalese end. As he surveyed the defense, he saw Mbappé make a break toward the right side of the box. He curled a pass around four Senegalese defenders, and Mbappé turned and shot in one smooth motion. In a split second, everything had changed. Mbappé was the hero. 1-0 France.
Mbappé added another goal later, which iced France’s 3-1 win and gave him 58 career international goals. That moved him past Olivier Giroud and made him France’s all-time goal leader. Mbappé now also has 14 career World Cup goals, tied for fourth most of all time. He trails only Brazil’s Ronaldo (15), Germany’s Miroslav Klose (16) and Argentina’s Lionel Messi (16), who scored a hat trick later that night to leapfrog Mbappé.
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“People will still criticize him,” French coach Didier Deschamps said. “He’s an iconic player. I’ve always said that. He can, from time to time, miss a game or two. But on one action, he really is able to tip the scales and bring his team to [victory].”
France entered the tournament with high expectations, obviously. Mbappé and France won the World Cup in 2018 and were No. 2 in FIFA’s world rankings before this game, behind only Messi’s Argentina. Lots of people were picking France to win it all again.
But France certainly didn’t look championship-worthy early on. Senegal created more chances and dictated the pace with a physical style of play. The referees seemed content to let both teams play on, even as players lay on the grass begging for calls. Mbappé was noticeably missing from the action, too, and the statistics backed it up. He had only 14 touches in the first half, according to ESPN, fewer than any other player on the field.
“His performance was modeled after the whole team, really,” Deschamps said. “He wasn’t very precise, very accurate over the first half.”
In the second half, France played with much more urgency and ended up outshooting Senegal 10-1 in that time. Many of its chances happened to be created by Olise, the 24-year-old midfielder who plays club soccer for Bayern Munich in Germany. In a span of 10 minutes, he made three beautiful passes that could have ended in Mbappé goals.
In the 57th minute, off a Senegal turnover, Olise slid a pass to Mbappé into the box, where he just had the goalkeeper really to beat. Mbappé finally got a shot off, only for Senegal goalkeeper Édouard Mendy to make a nice sliding save. Mbappé put his hands on his head in frustration. In the 64th minute, Olise sent in the pass that came this close. Then, in the 66th minute, Olise and Mbappé finally connected on France’s first goal.
“Over the whole game, [Mbappé] could have scored four or five goals,” Deschamps said.
Mbappé wasn’t done yet, either. In stoppage time, moments after Senegal had scored, he had the ball about 30 yards from the goal with a bit of space in front of him. Before the defense could converge, he wound up and drove the ball into the top left corner of the net. Mbappé’s teammates mobbed him in celebration as a Senegal player shook his head.
“I hope he will continue like this for the tournament,” France’s Adrien Rabiot said.
If Mbappé continues like this, he could be the World Cup’s No. 1 goalscorer by the end of the group stage, if not earlier, in the team’s match next Monday against Iraq. He needs two more goals to tie Messi and Klose and three more to pass them. “If he wants to miss the first half again and score two goals in the second half in another match, that’s OK with me,” Deschamps said.
After the game, Mbappé appeared briefly in the press area. He took a few questions in French and then was whisked away. “Merci beaucoup,” he said. “Au revoir.”
There will be more time to speak to the media as the tournament goes along, more time to analyze all his goals. He and France hope to be back in a month, on the same field, for the final.
