Olivier Giroud tied Thierry Henry’s record of 51 goals for France in international play as the defending champions defeated Australia 4-1 to start their World Cup 2022 Group D campaign.
Craig Goodwin’s early goal for Australia gave Les Bleus a scare, but two history-making goals from Giroud, along with headers from Adrien Rabiot and Kylian Mbappe, eventually helped France secure a comfortable victory.
With only nine minutes in play, France’s injury problems—which had already been made difficult by absent players both before and after the trip to Qatar—were made worse, and this injury also came as a personal insult.
The Australian winger Mathew Leckie outmuscled Lucas Hernandez on the right side and crossed for Goodwin to score at the far post. However, Hernandez fell to the ground clutching his knee and remained there.
Brother Theo Hernandez took over after the Bayern Munich player hobbled off with help from the medical staff, and Australia initially did well to contain France’s offensive prowess. Les Bleus began to exert more pressure, though, and they tied the score at 27 minutes when Rabiot, who was unmarked, headed in a cross from Theo Hernandez and beat Mat Ryan to give the world champions the lead once again.
After giving the ball away to goal scorer Rabiot close to his own goal in the 32nd minute, the Australian defender Nathaniel Atkinson was forced to learn a difficult lesson. The team of Didier Deschamps found themselves suddenly winning.
Giroud’s 50th international goal was an easy one for the AC Milan veteran to score after Rabiot stole the ball from Atkinson on the left, played a one-two with Kylian Mbappe, and found Giroud inside the box.
France’s Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele then missed opportunities, and Australia soon found themselves under constant pressure after Mbappe miraculously missed a shot from a few yards out in the 45th minute. This miss tied Andreas Cornelius for the worst of the day.
Hugo Lloris was left stranded by Jackson Irvine’s header in first-half stoppage time, and the ball narrowly missed the post before falling behind for Graham Arnold’s team.
Giroud attempted to score his most recent signature screamer just six minutes into the second half, but his acrobatic effort harmlessly missed the target. Giroud linked with Hernandez’s cross with quite an eye-catching bicycle kick.
A fantastic goal-line clearance by Aziz Behich prevented a third goal for France after Griezmann’s strike in the 67th minute. However, Les Bleus would double their advantage just one minute later when Mbappe headed in off the post from Dembele’s cross.
Just four minutes later, Mbappe assisted Giroud in a historic fourth goal for France, exploding down the left and crossing for the 36-year-old to head in his 51st goal, matching the all-time men’s record set by Henry.
Giroud was replaced in the final moments of Tuesday’s game, just before Ryan had to react quickly to deflect an Ibrahima Konate header at the start of the game’s final seven minutes. In the closing seconds of Tuesday’s game, Giroud was substituted, just before Ryan had to be alert to deflect an Ibrahima Konate header at the start of the final seven minutes.
Deschamps’ team is now preparing for their match against Denmark on Saturday while Australia looks to bounce back against Tunisia the same day. Australia’s team was untroubled en route to an early three-point victory.
France easily defeats Australia to start off their World Cup defence on a winning note! Goodwin’s first goal, which was the fastest of the World Cup so far, caught Les Bleus off guard, but they weren’t deterred and went on to score four goals without answering. Giroud will be happy with his duplicate, and Mbappe was outstanding as usual.
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