France Humble Australia : Defending world champions France got off their title defence to a flying start with an emphatic 4-1 victory against Australia on Tuesday night at the Al Janoub stadium in Al Wakrah as AC Milan striker Olivier Giroud equalled the record of Thiery Henry.
The former Chelsea and Arsenal forward netted a superb brace in the 32nd and 71st minutes to help France easily account for the Socceroos and by so doing he becomes joint all-time top scorer for the France national team on 51 goals ; levelling up with Thiery Henry who also scored 51 times for France and had held the outright record since retiring in 2010.
Craig Dawson put Australia ahead in the 9th minute and many thought another upset , after Saudi Arabia’s against Argentina earlier on Tuesday , was possibly loading but the two-time World Cup winners quickly reorganized and equalized through Adrien Rabiot’s header in the 27th minute.
Giroud put France ahead five minutes later with Rabiot turning into a provider.
The team of Didier Deschamps scored again through PSG star attraction Kylian Mbappe who headed home the third of the night for France in the 68th minute. Ousmane Dembele assisted him with a cross.
France were not done yet as Giroud realized a brace in the 71st minute to hand his national team a 4-1 lead and break Henry’s scoring record.
The champions go top of the Group D table with 3 points plus 3 goals as Denmark and Tunisia drew earlier today.
Tunisia now play Australia whilst France take on Denmark on November 26th during the second round of group play.
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