France beat Poland and advanced to the Quarter Finals of the World Cup
Olivier Giroud and Kylian Mbappé scored as France beat Poland 3-1 to progress to the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup.
Giroud’s first goal saw the 36-year-old French striker become France’s top scorer, taking advantage of Karim Benzema’s absence from the tournament to overtake Thierry Henry.
Mbappé then doubled France’s lead in the 74th minute before scoring again late on as the Paris Saint-Germain forward produced another stunning performance for Didier Deschamps’ side at the tournament.
Robert Lewandowski scored from the penalty spot in the dying minutes, but it was only a consolation for Poland.
The defending champions will face either England or Senegal in the quarter-finals of the competition on December 10.
France had a chance and a half in the fourth minute when Raphael Varane raced further into the area to take a corner, but the defender’s header went over the bar.
Poland struggled to get out of their own half in the first exchanges. Mbappé’s pace caused all sorts of problems and the crowd went wild every time he got the ball.
Wojciech Szczesny had to come down to keep out Aurelien Tchouamen’s powerful shot in the 13th minute before Ousmane Dembele was saved by the Polish goalkeeper.
Szczesny then denied Antoine Griezmann from close range before Lewandowski turned Hugo Lloris’ crossbar into the area.
France had another excellent chance in the 29th minute when Dembélé found space on the right before curling a low cross into the Polish penalty area, but Giroud hit the crossbar.
The Reds caused problems at the other end when Matty Cash fired wide, but the biggest danger came from Mbappé who fired wide in the 35th minute.
Poland had a golden chance late in the first half when Piotr Zielinski found space in the penalty area, but Lloris saved his first effort before Dayot Upamecano blocked the second.
France opened the scoring in the 44th minute when Giroud collected Mbappé’s pass before hitting the bottom corner of the net to become his country’s all-time leading goalscorer.
Zielinski almost hit back before the break when the midfielder blocked a shot from the side of the net, but Giroud’s goal separated the teams at half-time.
Mbappé turned the crossbar for Poland in the 57th minute before Giroud had a superb goal ruled out by an injury to Szczesny, who went down after a collision with Varane.
Kamil Glik headed France over in the 72nd minute, but Poland took the game away from him in the 75th minute when Mbappé fired a quick shot home.
Theo Hernández headed Poland’s goal with more than 10 minutes remaining, but Mbappé added France’s third. The forward scored one goal from the top corner in the 91st minute after finding space in the penalty area.
The 23-year-old player has already scored five goals in this year’s competition and a total of nine in the World Cup.
In the last moments, Poland got a penalty kick from Upamecano’s handball; Lewandowski saw his opener saved by Lloris, but the keeper went off the line before touching down and the Barcelona striker found the defender at the second attempt.
Lineups:
France Replacements: Pavard, Disasi, Guendouzi, Muani, Fofana, Veretout, Mandanda, Saliba, Coman, Areola, Konate, Camavinga, Thuram
Poland Replacements: Jedrzejczyk, Wieteska, Bednarek, Bielik, Milik, Damian Szymanski, Grosicki, Skorupski, Swiderski, Zurkowski, Zalewski, Grabara, Piatek, Gumny, Skoras
Scorers:
France
Poland
Yellow Cards:
Bartosz Bereszynski
Matty Cash
