France ease past Iraq in harsh weather

Kylian Mbappe marked his 100th cap by scoring two more World Cup goals on Monday as France eased to a 3-0 win over Iraq in a game delayed by two hours by a severe storm.

Mbappe opened the scoring in the 14th minute and added another nine minutes into the second half, with last year’s Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele getting the other goal for the tournament favourites in Philadelphia.

Mbappe moved to 16 World Cup goals in his career, two behind Lionel Messi who set a new record of 18 goals by netting twice for Argentina against Austria earlier on Monday.

The match in Philadelphia kicked off at 5:00 pm local time (2100 GMT) and had to be halted at half-time as a huge storm passed over the city.

Having started in dry conditions, torrential rain began to fall late in the first half, and supporters were told as soon as the half-time whistle was blown to “exit the open seating area and seek shelter in covered areas”.

The vast majority of the 68,324-capacity Lincoln Financial Field is uncovered — leaving most of the capacity crowd to pack into the concourses.

The second half eventually got under way more than two hours behind schedule, in what was the first match at this World Cup to be held up by bad weather.

There are strict protocols in place in the United States that mean a game must be halted if a storm is detected in the area.

It is also raining goals at this World Cup for Mbappe, whose brace here followed two in France’s opening 3-1 win over Senegal last Tuesday.

The 27-year-old Real Madrid superstar and France captain became his country’s all-time top scorer with his goals against Senegal, overtaking the previous best tally of 57 for Olivier Giroud.

He now has 60 goals for Les Bleus in a century of appearances, and 16 of them have come at the World Cup in just 16 matches at the tournament.

Shoot-out with Messi

Mbappe is now level on the all-time list of World Cup goals with Germany’s Miroslav Klose, who started the tournament as the all-time leading scorer.

He has overtaken the 15 goals scored by the Brazilian Ronaldo and seems set for a shoot-out at this year’s World Cup with Messi.

Next up for Mbappe and France is a meeting with Erling Haaland’s Norway in Boston on Friday, but the 2022 beaten finalists are already certain of reaching the last 32 after notching two wins from two games in Group I.

Iraq, meanwhile, are staring at the prospect of early elimination after this defeat followed a 4-1 loss to Norway in their opening game — they have now lost five games out of five across two World Cups, 40 years apart.

France made three changes from their opening game, with Bradley Barcola replacing Desire Doue on the left wing, Manu Kone stepping in for Aurelien Tchouameni in midfield, and Lucas Digne preferred to Theo Hernandez at left-back.

Mbappe opened the scoring before the quarter-hour mark when he controlled a pass with his right foot and sent in a shot from 20 metres which was too powerful for Iraq goalkeeper Ahmed Basil.

Graham Arnold’s side were then dealt a blow as captain and striker Aymen Hussein had to come off with just 26 minutes gone.

The weather delay made for a surreal atmosphere as the storm passed overhead, leaving supporters drenched, and forced the players to sit it out in the dressing room.

When play resumed, Iraq caved in, with a calamitous passage of play gifting Mbappe and France their second goal on 54 minutes.

A goal-kick was taken by defender Zaid Tahseen who tried to give it goalkeeper Basil, but he hit it too hard and wide, and Dembele was able to set up Mbappe for a simple finish.

Michael Olise then hit the bar with a delicate chip before the Bayern Munich man set up Dembele to fire in on 66 minutes for 3-0.