Luay Ahmed
France got their World Cup campaign off to a strong start with a dominant 4-1 win over Australia.
The match got off to a frantic start, with Australia taking a shock lead in the 9th minute when Craig Goodwin latched onto a Mathew Leckie cross at the back post. Replay’s showed that Leckie’s cross took a slight deflection off Adrien Rabiot. It would be Rabiot’s first significant involvement in a half of football in which his contributions would prove significant.
After the goal, France started to grow into the game without creating any notable opportunities, but Australia managed to fashion another opportunity for themselves as Theo Hernandez lost the ball outside his box, Riley McGee pounced on the opportunity by taking a long range strike that narrowly missed the top corner.
From that point on, France took over the game and eventually equalized when a Theo Hernandez cross was met by a rising Adrien Rabiot in the box who powerfully headed the ball past a helpless Matt Ryan.
France added their second goal soon after. Adrien Rabiot won possession back for his team high up the field, and played a beautiful one-two with Kylian Mbappe before cutting the ball back for Olivier Giroud to tap it into an open goal. An opportunity for a third goal soon followed, when Mbappe crossed for Dembele who blasted a volley over the bar. Minutes later, it was Mbappe who blasted over from a similar position after connecting with a cross from the lively Griezaman.
Australia ended the half strongly, with Jackson Irvine hitting the post with a towering header, before the referee blew the half time whistle with the score at 2-1.
France started the second half where they left off in the first, with Hernandez crossing to Olivier Giroud who attempted an acrobatic bicycle kick which went just wide. France continued to pile on the pressure, and Australia eventually folded as an Ousmane Dembele cross from the right wing was headed in off the post to give France a 3-1 lead.
Mbappe turned provider later in the half, floating in a left footed cross which was expertly headed in by Giroud to seal the points for France.
Final score: France 4 – 1 Australia.