Mbappé scores brace as France overpower Sweden to reach last 16

Kylian Mbappé scored a brace and Michael Olise had a glistering performance as France overpowered Sweden in a 3-0 victory on Tuesday to reach the last 16 of the World Cup.

France will now face Paraguay, who stunned Germany in a 4-3 win on penalties, for a place in the quarter-finals.

Mbappé, meanwhile, increased his overall tally of World Cup goals to 18, just one from Lionel Messi‘s all-time record of 19.

“There’s always room for improvement. Not everything is perfect just yet,” France coach Didier Deschamps said.

France have now scored 13 goals in four World Cup matches.

They took a deserved lead in the 45th minute when Michael Olise and Ousmane Dembélé combined from a corner and slid Mbappé in. The Real Madrid star then dribbled Viktor Gyokeres and fired the ball into the net.

The 2018 world champions doubled their advantage after Olise found Bradley Barcola, who sent it home in the 53rd.

Mbappé sealed the win in the 74th after Olise sneaked a pass to him into the box. The French star was subbed off in the 85th minute and will have to wait until the next match to try to equal or beat Messi’s record.

Messi, however, can increase his tally as Argentina are still to play in the round of 32 against Cape Verde on Friday, while France are back in action on Saturday.

Mbappé and Messi are level on six goals each in the tournament, but Mbappé now holds the record for the most goals scored in the knock-out stages of a men’s World Cup.

Olise almost scores goal of the tournament

France thought they had broken the deadlock in the 20th after Mbappé received a through ball and beat goalkeeper Mike Maignan one-on-one, but his goal was disallowed for offside.

Olise then almost scored the goal of the tournament so far in the 36th. He managed a stunning bicycle kick from the edge of the box, but the ball hit the post.

The Bayern Munich star tried again from just outside the box but Maignan got a crucial touch to send the ball away.

From the resulting corner, Olise and Dembélé combined to feed the ball to Mbappé, who danced past Gyokeres before striking the opener between the posts.

France added a second after Olise slipped the ball through Gustaf Lagerbielke’s legs to find Barcola, who didn’t waste the assist and added his name to the scoresheet in the 53rd.

Olise tried again to add a goal to his name as he was set up by Mbappé and had only the keeper to beat in the 72nd, but Maignan got to the ball first.

Olise ended the game without a goal, but claimed a second assist to help Mbappé complete his brace in the 74th.

“So disappointed to go out, we weren’t ready to go home, we wanted more,” Sweden coach Graham Potter said.

“I’m so proud of the team, such a young team, so many players making their debut in this tournament. It’s fair to say a bit too far for us today in terms of the quality we were playing against.

“I love this team. this is the start of something, but we’re disappointed because we wanted to go through.”

After his first goal, Mbappé ran to embrace Deschamps and was followed by his team-mates.

“We’re all in this together. He’s never alone with us. We’ll support him,” the player said.

Deschamps recently lost his mother and missed the last group stage game – a 4-1 win over Norway – to attend the funeral.