France is the first team to qualify for the Round of 16 of the 2022 World Cup following a 2-1 victory over Denmark on Saturday night. This comes after the defending champions thumped Australia 4-1 in their opening group-stage game.
Kylian Mbappe found the back of the net on both occasions for the French, bringing his goal tally for the tournament to three. At present, Mbappe is at the top of the scoring charts.
Following a goalless first half in which both teams came close to scoring, France took the lead in the 61st minute as Mbappe played a quick one-two with left-back Theo Hernandez. The Danish hit back almost immediately, placing the French backline under continuous pressure which resulted in an Andreas Christensen equalizer just seven minutes later.
Despite France dominating proceedings from then on out, the game looked set to end in a deadlock until the 86th minute, when Mbappe found himself on the end of an Antoine Griezmann cross to restore the defending champions’ lead.
With this victory, France becomes the first reigning champions since 2006 to avoid elimination from the group stage. 2006 champions Italy were eliminated from the 2010 group stage, as were 2010 champions Spain in 2014 and 2014 champions Germany in 2018.
