France overcame a prolonged climate delay to defeat Iraq 3-0 and strengthen their place on the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Monday night time.
The Group stage match was suspended for greater than two hours because of lightning exercise close to the stadium. Play was stopped on the finish of the primary half at 5:49pm native time and finally resumed at 8:00pm.
Regardless of the interruption, France remained in management and secured a cushty victory by means of a brace from captain Kylian Mbappe and a objective from Ousmane Dembele.
Mbappe opened the scoring earlier than the climate stoppage and added his second objective after play resumed. Dembele then wrapped up the win together with his first-ever World Cup objective.
The outcome moved France onto six factors from two matches and underlined their standing as one of many favourites for the event.
Mbappe’s double was additionally a private milestone. The 27-year-old now has 16 World Cup targets, leaving him simply two in need of the all-time report of 18 targets set earlier on Monday by Lionel Messi.
France dominated all through the competition, registering 16 pictures in comparison with Iraq’s two, whereas the Asian facet didn’t report a shot heading in the right direction.
Mbappe got here near finishing his hat-trick late within the sport however fired over the bar after breaking away from the Iraq defence.
The victory extends France’s spectacular begin to the event as Didier Deschamps’ facet proceed their quest for an additional World Cup title, whereas Iraq face a troublesome problem to maintain their hopes of reaching the knockout stage alive.
