Kylian Mbappe wrote his name into the record books and underlined why he is surely the best player at this World Cup.
Mbappe scored twice, his double meant France became the first team to reach the knock-out stages and the reigning champions will take a lot of stopping.
Paris Saint Germain star Mbappe is still only 23, he already has 31 goals for his country and 14 in his last 12 games for France which shows he is the in-form player in Qatar. Mbappe is also only the second player - after Pele - to score seven World Cup goals before turning 24 and, at this rate, he could break every record in sight. Ominously, Mbappe turns 24 two days after the World Cup final.
It was Mbappe’s pace, goals and brilliance which fired France to glory four years ago and, despite a catalogue of injuries, Les Bleus look to have the best squad. And in Mbappe, they have a striker with everything.
Incredibly, Denmark had beaten France in their last two meetings earlier this year in the Nations League and yet, when the biggest games start, Mbappe rises to the occasion.
France boss Didier Deschamps said: “He is an exceptional player, the ability to be decisive, to stand out from the crowd and to make the difference.
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“Once again, he is an exceptional player in an exceptional team who are strong together. He is a leader. For me, you have different leaders: physical leader, mental leader and Kylian is like a steam train on the pitch who gets the crowd going and gives his all on the pitch.
“We have a great pool of players, they don’t all have the same experience as some we are missing but we have a high quality squad with a great mentality.”
Denmark boss Kasper Hjulmand, whose side now face a win-or-bust game with Australia in their final Group match, said: “We were close to getting a great result after going down 1-0, because we came back to 1-1 and had two great chances to go ahead. We are very disappointed but we will come back again for our final on Wednesday.”
It had actually been billed as Olivier Giroud’s chance to become France’s all time record scorer - he is currently tied with Thierry Henry - but as ever it was Mbappe who stole the show.
France had chances but had to wait until the 61st minute to open the scoring when Mbappe combined well with Theo Hernandez. Mbappe then burst into the box and fired home a low shot to give France the lead.
The lead only lasted seven minutes as Christian Eriksen’s corner was flicked on by Joachim Andersen and Barcelona ’s former Chelsea defender Andreas Christensen powered home a header. However, France deserved their win as substitute Kingsley Coman started a move, Antoine Griezmann capped a super display by putting over a teasing cross and the ball went in off Mbappe’s knee at the back post.
