By Ian Quillen
PHILADELPHIA, June 23 (Reuters) – Kylian Mbappe scored his second double of the tournament and Ousmane Dembele added a third as France eased into the last 32 with a 3-0 victory over Iraq on Monday in the first match of this World Cup beset by a lengthy weather stoppage.
Mbappe’s goals, on his 100th international appearance, came nearly three hours apart after thunderstorms in the region delayed the second-half kickoff by a shade under two hours.
“The first half was good,” said France manager Didier Deschamps. “In the second half, we picked up where we left off, bearing in mind that it wasn’t easy given what happened, and we managed to put the game beyond reach. That’s a very good thing.”
Mbappe now sits on 16 all-time World Cup goals, pulling level with Germany’s former record holder Miroslav Klose.
Earlier on Monday, Lionel Messi set a new benchmark of 18 World Cup goals with a brace in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Austria.
Mbappe’s four goals also put him one behind Messi in the 2026 World Cup Golden Boot race.
Reigning Ballon d’Or winner Dembele scored after halftime for twice champions France, who will face Norway on Saturday with Group I top spot on the line. The Norwegians beat Senegal 3-2 on Monday to move level on three points with the French.
Dembele had faced criticism for what some regarded as a poor performance in France’s 3-1 opening win over Senegal.
“There’s no issue,” Deschamps said. “Ousmane is confident in himself. He can sometimes get people talking, but I have complete faith in him. He’s still finding his bearings because his role is different from the one he has at his club.”
Iraq remain alive for one of the eight third-place spots.
They will probably need a win in their group finale against Senegal and help elsewhere. They could be without Aymen Hussein, who scored in their 4-1 opening defeat by Norway but came off in the 26th minute on Monday with an apparent injury.
MBAPPE’S MOMENT OF EXCELLENCE
“You have one moment of excellence from one of the best players in the world,” said Ali Al-Hamadi, who replaced Hussein.
“And then we have to go inside and wait for an hour and a half. You know, it’s really difficult to come out and keep the same intensity against these great players. And in the end I think we made too many mistakes again,” he added.
France dominated the early stages and Mbappe capitalised in the 14th minute.
After an innocent-looking sequence on the right, the striker received Michael Olise’s pass, took one touch to his left and, with defenders affording him space, unfurled a powerful strike from the edge of the area that sailed beyond Ahmed Basil’s dive.
The weather delay could have served as a recovery period for Iraq, who spent most of the first half chasing the ball. Instead, they gifted France and Mbappe a second in the 54th minute after a dreadful mistake from a goal kick.
Basil was unable to control a short goal-kick from defender Zaid Tahseen and Dembele was on hand to set up Mbappe’s simple tap-in. Dembele scored himself 12 minutes later after controlling Olise’s incisive pass and finishing low past Basil.
With the outcome never really in doubt, the weather provided most of the drama.
After referee Drew Fischer blew his halftime whistle as the storms were already beginning, the skies opened up further and spectators were told to seek shelter in the stadium concourses.
The players finally re-emerged for warm-ups about one hour and 40 minutes later and, even then, the restart was delayed further as stadium personnel used squeegees to shuttle standing water off the east side of the pitch.
(Reporting by Ian Quillen; Writing by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge and Ken Ferris)
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