France’s Dominant Start in the World Cup
France made a strong start to their World Cup campaign, defeating the disputed African champions Senegal with a dominant display. The match saw Les Bleus struggling to break through a tight defense in the first half, but they eventually found their rhythm and secured a victory.
Kylian Mbappé, the French striker and Real Madrid forward, delivered a stellar performance in his opening World Cup match, cementing his country’s status as one of the favorites to win the title. After a goalless first half, Mbappé scored twice, moving past Pelé with 14 World Cup goals. His celebration included mimicking a flutist, as he had promised during a previous interview.
Mbappé had 14 touches in the scoreless first half, the fewest of any player, then put France ahead in the 66th minute. He burst past Senegal captain Kalidou Koulibaly, turned onto a diagonal pass from Michael Olise, and slid the ball past goalkeeper Édouard Mendy from just outside the 6-yard box.
In a segment taped on 20 May, which aired on Friday by US broadcaster Fox, award-winning actor and television host James Corden suggested the 27-year-old star striker celebrate his next World Cup goal by imitating a flute player. Mbappé practiced the instrument for a year or two as a child at the behest of his parents.
“I’ll do it for you first game,” Mbappé said. Mbappé ran toward a corner, brought both hands to his lips, and air-tooted for a few seconds.
PSG’s Bradley Barcola doubled the lead in the 82nd minute, two minutes after being subbed on, and Ibrahim Mbaye cut the deficit in the fifth minute of stoppage time for Senegal. Mbappé scored just 68 seconds later on a spectacular right-footed shot from 30 yards. The ball dipped perfectly between Mendy’s outstretched left arm and the crossbar.
“A crazy goal,” French defender William Saliba said. Mbappé, who led the 2022 tournament with eight goals, moved one ahead of Lionel Messi and fellow Frenchman Just Fontaine on the World Cup career scoring list before Messi scored his 14th, 15th, and 16th for Argentina later Tuesday.
Argentina’s Strong Performance
Argentina, led by football icon Lionel Messi, played their opener where they cruised past Algeria 3-0 with a convincing display. Messi delivered his first World Cup hat trick while matching Miroslav Klose’s career tournament scoring record Tuesday night, giving thousands of Argentina fans packed inside of Arrowhead Stadium for a match against Algeria a moment they will never forget.
Messi scored his first goal in the opening minutes off a nifty feed from Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo De Paul, the second early in the second half, and the third moments before subbing out to a standing ovation. The goals came 20 years to the day that Messi made his World Cup debut for Argentina in a match against Serbia and Montenegro — he scored in that one, too — and made him only the second player to score in five editions of the tournament.
Messi has 16 goals in his six World Cup appearances, and it seems inevitable that Klose’s record will fall in the coming weeks. The hat trick was the 61st of his career and his 11th while playing with the national team. It was the fifth straight World Cup game in which Messi has scored.
Norway’s Victory Over Iraq
Norway will go as far in this World Cup as Erling Haaland takes it, as the star striker showed in his tournament debut, that he’s more than up for that challenge. Haaland scored two goals, including one off a defensive blunder, on Tuesday to propel Norway to a 4-1 victory over Iraq in Group I.
The Manchester City striker’s 56th and 57th international goals came in Norway’s first appearance in the tournament since reaching the knockout round at the 1998 World Cup in France — two years before Haaland was born. Haaland said he will do his best to meet the expectations he created with this performance.
Leo Ostigard scored in the 76th minute off a corner kick from Martin Odegaard. An own-goal by Iraq forward Aymen Hussein just before the final whistle completed Norway’s scoring. Hussein also scored for his team, an equaliser just nine minutes after Haaland’s first strike.
Haaland put the Norwegians in front for good just before halftime when he sneaked in front of a poor back pass to Iraq goalkeeper Jalal Hassan. Haaland beat Hassan to the ball, pre-empting his attempted clearance, and then used his shin to put the ball in the back of the net. “It’s one of those things. It happened,” Iraq coach Graham Arnold said. “It is what is and we have to learn from it.”
