It was another dominant performance for Kylian Mbappe and the France national football team in their 3-0 win over Sweden in the World Cup knockout round yesterday. Not only did Mbappe add two more goals to his Golden Boot campaign, he's rapidly closing in on nemesis Lionel Messi's World Cup record.
With his two goals in yesterday's game to bring him to six goals in this World Cup, Mbappe now has 17 goals in the World Cup across his three appearances. He is now just one goal behind Lionel Messi's all-time mark of 18 World Cup goals.
Whether or not Mbappe passes Messi by the end of this World Cup or not, it now seems inevitable that he breaks it at some point in the future. At 27 years of age, Mbappe is likely to play anywhere from two to three more World Cups before he calls it a career - maybe even four if he can stay as injury-free as Messi has.
The Unstoppable French
Were it not for an otherworldly performance by Messi in the 2022 World Cup Final, France would be the two-time defending World Cup champions thanks in no small part to Mbappe, who scored eight goals at the 2022 World Cup after scoring four in 2018. Les Bleus clearly know that and are making up for lost time by dominating their first four games of this tournament.
In Group I, France dominated Senegal, Iraq and Norway by a combined margin of 10-2. Mbappe was responsible for four of those 10 goals. Yesterday against Sweden, Mbappe added two more to his total in a 3-0 win that probably would have seen France score twice that many goals if they were only a few inches more on target.
© David Butler Ii-Imagn Images
Their next game will be against Paraguay, who shocked the world with a win over Germany on penalty kicks. But most people doubt that Paraguay will be able to replicate that performance against France.
But while Mbappe will certainly have plenty of chances to break Messi's record in the Round of 16, Messi will also have his chances to extend his record - and possibly by a lot. Messi's Argentina team play Cape Verde in a game that could very well be a blowout. And a blowout means that Messi will probably have a big role in it.
Assuming Argentina win, they'll then face either Australia or Egypt, with a path to play one of either Switzerland, Algeria, Colombia or Ghana. That's a LOT of opportunities for Messi to significantly add on to his record.
