Olivier Giroud draws level with Henry after a double against Australia


Tuesday, November 22, 2022 at 10:00 PM• Noel Korteweg

France has won its first group stage match of the World Cup. Les Blues fell behind against Australia in the opening phase of the game, but goals from Adrien Rabiot, Olivier Giroud (two) and Kylian Mbappé were enough for the victory: 4-1. Giroud wrote with his brace history and is now tied with Thierry Henry in goals for France. The AC Milan striker needs one more goal to become the all-time top scorer of the French.

The preparation of national coach Didier Deschamps’ team for the World Cup was anything but flawless. During the first half of the season, it already lost Paul Pogba, Presnel Kimpembe and N’Golo Kanté due to serious injuries and two strong players also dropped out last week. Christopher Nkunku first got injured during one of the last training sessions, before the brand new Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema suffered the same. The pair therefore had to put an end to the World Cup in Qatar. However, Deschamps was confident enough in the rest of the squad and did not call up a replacement for the Real Madrid captain. Randal Kolo Muani from Eintracht Frankfurt was brought into the group as a replacement for Nkunku.

Ibrahima Konaté started Tuesday night at the Al Janoub Stadium alongside Dayot Upamecano in the heart of the defense. Raphaël Varane, who injured his hamstring in the match against Chelsea (1-1) with Manchester United, was not yet fit enough to start. The defender is expected to be able to make minutes later in the tournament. The midfield consisted of Rabiot and Aurélien Tchouameni, who had a world-class attack line in front of them with Ousmane Dembélé, Antoine Griezmann, Mbappé and Giroud.

However, the game against Australia started with two setbacks ahead Les Blues. After ten minutes it fell behind, but it also lost Lucas Hernández. Mathew Leckie received a long ball from defender Kye Rowles and cut down the French left back. Hernández seemed to get stuck in the grass with his knee and, at first glance, was seriously injured. To make matters worse, the team of Deschamps ex-Spartan Craig Goodwin saw Leckie’s cross shoot hard into the roof of the goal: 0-1. Hernández was replaced by his brother Theo, after which France went looking for the equalizer.

Lucas Hernández has to stop early in the game.

It would eventually fall fifteen minutes later. A falling corner from Griezmann was picked up by Konaté, who passed the ball to Hernández. Milan’s left back saw Rabiot’s running action, after which the latter was able to head in after a nice cross from Hernández: 1-1. Less than five minutes later, the French took the lead. Australia suffered a sloppy loss of possession in the build-up, which Rabiot was able to take advantage of. The midfielder of Juventus lost to Giroud, who could not miss an open goal: 2-1. The ex-Arsenal and Chelsea striker thus put an end to a very painful fact.

Giroud failed to score in seven games at the previous World Cup, in 2018. What’s called, the striker didn’t even shoot once on target in Russia. On Tuesday evening, he scored his first goal in a global final tournament since 2014, when he scored once in the group stage against Switzerland (2-5 win). With the goal against Australia, Giroud came to fifty goals for France: all-time top scorer Thierry Henry made 51 in his career. The margin was almost expanded to two just before halftime. Griezmann was sent deep on the flank and gave Mbappé in one go. However, the Paris Saint-Germain superstar worked overtime from close range. After the break, the pace slowed down a bit, but Giroud almost made his second of the game with a phenomenal half bicycle kick. However, his attempt went a few meters wide of the target.

Twenty minutes after the break, Mbappé also scored a goal. A failed shot from the striker almost went over the sideline, but Dembélé managed to keep the ball in. The wing attacker of Barcelona then flawlessly put the ball on the head of Mbappé, who made it 3-1. Four minutes later, Giroud came on the scoreboard for the second time. Mbappé gave the cross to the long striker, who headed in in an almost identical way as the principal did a few minutes earlier: 4-1. Giroud scored his 51st goal for France and therefore needs one more goal to overtake Henry and become his home country’s all-time top scorer. Les Blues will take on Denmark next Saturday, which drew against Tunisia (0-0) earlier on Tuesday.