Kylian Mbappé struck a magnificent late goal as France launched their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Ukraine in Poland.
Mbappé’s solo effort in the 83rd minute, which drew him level with Thierry Henry as France’s second all-time top goalscorer on 51, swept the game out of the Ukrainians’ reach, although only after they had threatened to notch an equaliser at Wroclaw’s Stadion Miejski.
Michael Olise had opened the scoring with a crisp finish and while Les Bleus were in control for most of the match, the crucial second proved elusive until Mbappé’s moment of magic.
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The Real Madrid forward matched Henry’s France total in 32 fewer games. Only Olivier Giroud with 57 has more.
“Big up, Titi. But I want to overtake you now,” Mbappé quipped. “No, it’s an honor.”
It was Les Bleus’ and Mbappé’s first World Cup game since his hat trick in that epic loss to Lionel Messi and Argentina in the 2022 final when they were defending champions.
“We had a lot to lose so it’s very good to begin the qualifying campaign with this victory,” France coach Didier Deschamps told broadcaster TF1.
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Deschamps made seven changes to the side which overcame Germany 2-0 in the Nations League third place playoff in June and two of the new faces combined to fire France ahead in the 11th minute.
A long ball released Paris Saint-Germain forward Bradley Barcola down the left and he was given the time and space to pick out the unmarked Olise, who found the bottom right corner with ease.
Ukraine had produced some promising moments in the opening exchanges, but Olise’s strike knocked them off their stride and the Bayern Munich star was denied a second shortly by a superb one-handed save from Anatoliy Trubin.
Mbappé steered a shot over the crossbar and it was the dangerous Barcola who was causing Ukraine’s over-worked defence the greatest problems through his runs down the left.
A better job was done on crowding out Mbappé as he looked to release Olise and when half-time arrived the stats painted a picture of French dominance, including three shots on target compared to the underdogs’ none.
Ousmane Dembélé was brought on for Désiré Doué at the interval but the next threat came from Ukraine with France having to deal with a corner, cross and free-kick in quick succession.
Olise tried his luck from long range as France went back on the attack before Trubin had to be alert to a tricky run by Dembele.
Ukraine then produced their best spell of the match with Illia Zabarnyi nodding a free kick against the post from close range before Ibrahima Konaté intervened to keep out a header from Ivan Kalyuzhnyi.
Knowing they had gone close to conceding, France responded with Olise, Dembélé and Barcola each looking to add the second goal which would put the game beyond reach.
Barcola in particular should have done better after being teed up Olise, but his shot went high.
Dembélé limped off to be replaced by debutant Hugo Ekitike and with seven minutes left France had their second when Mbappé charged into the box, turning Zabarnyi inside out, before slotting home an unstoppable finish.
Information from PA and The Associated Press was used in this report.
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