Izuchukwu OkosiWorld champions France overcame the challenge posed by Poland with a 3-1 win Sunday evening to set up a quarterfinals clash against England on Saturday evening in the 2022 FIFA World Cup reports Prime Business Africa.
The game was a record breaking one for striker Olivier Giroud who became France’s outright all-time too scorer with a great low finish in the first half. Kylian Mbappe then grabbed a brace to take the game beyond the Poles.
Robert Lewandowski scored a consolation for Poland from the penalty spot but it was too little, too late to cause any troubles for Didier Deschamps’ side.
France found the defence of Poland impregnable but the deadlock was broken just before the break when Mbappe slid the all onto the path of Giroud who fired a low shot past Wojciech Szczesny for his 52nd goal for France.
Giroud went close to scoring a second for Les Bleus when he flicked a cross from Barcelona defender Jules Kounde past the near post.
Mbappe then let fly a shot that saw the ball sail inside the top corner in the 74th minute. The PSG forward with Camerioonan heritage added a second in stoppage time with a powerful shot for his fifth goal of the tournament.
France are without talismanic striker Karim Benzema who copped an injury before the World Cup in Qatar began but there are talks that the Real Madrid star may be for enough to make an appearance in the quarterfinals match this weekend.
France suffered a shocking 1-0 defeat to one of Africa’s five representatives Tunisia in their last Group D match albeit the coach rested a number of first team players.
There are already two confirmed quarterfinals fixtures so far in the coming days with Argentina who beat Australia billed to face the Netherlands who got the better of USA on Saturday evening.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
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