Kylian Mbappé broke the record for most goals in World Cup knockout matches and moved within a single goal of Lionel Messi‘s overall tournament mark, as his two goals led France to a dominant 3-0 win over Sweden at MetLife Stadium on Tuesday.
The victory, France’s biggest in a World Cup knockout match since their 3-0 win over Brazil in the 1998 final, sets up a round-of-16 matchup against Germany’s conquerors Paraguay on July 4 in Philadelphia.
After a give-and-go with Ousmane Dembélé, Mbappé scored on a brilliant individual effort in the 45th minute. Mbappé crossed over Viktor Gyökeres before firing his shot past Sweden goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterström.
That was the Real Madrid star’ s ninth goal in the knockout stage of the World Cup, breaking a tie with Brazilian greats Leonidas and Ronaldo for the most in the history of the tournament.
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The 27-year-old Mbappé ran immediately to coach Didier Deschamps after scoring. This was Deschamps’ first game back on the sideline after missing the group stage finale against Norway to fly back to Europe for his mother’s funeral.
But Mbappé wasn’t done yet. After Bradley Barcola scored France’ second goal early in the second half, Mbappé added a classy third in the 74th minute, latching onto a perfectly weighted pass from Michael Olise and finishing expertly into the far side of the net.
Mbappé’s sixth goal of this year’s tournament tied him with Argentina forward Messi in the race for the Golden Boot. With 18 goals in 18 World Cup games, he moved one behind Messi on the all-time scoring list. Messi has played in 29 World Cup games in his career.
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Deschamps bowed when his star came to the bench after he was substituted in the 85th minute.
Olise also provided an assist on Barcola’s goal to move onto five assists for the tournament — the most by a single player at a men’s World Cup since Thomas Hässler for Germany in 1994.
The Associated Press and ESPN Research contributed to this report.
