Kylian Mbappe’s reign as captain of the France football team began in an auspicious manner as his side thrashed the Netherlands 4-0 in their European qualifier at home.
Playing their first game since the 2022 FIFA World Cup final loss and without the old guard of Hugo Lloris and Raphael Varane, Didier Deschamps’ men sent out a warning that the news of their demise may be premature.
Antoine Griezmann, Dayot Upamecano and Mbappe (2) all got on the scoresheet to lead France to an easy win.
The home side took just two minutes to break the deadlock as Mbappe set up Griezmann whose curled shot flew past Jasper Cillessen. Just six minutes later, Upamecano doubled his side’s lead, bundling the ball over the line following a defensive error.
The match was practically over when Mbappe also got on the scoresheet in the 21st minute, easily beating Cillessen after being played through by Aurelien Tchouameni.
Memphis Depay briefly threatened France’s defences on either side of the half but the Atletico Madrid forward found no help from his teammates.
Despite taking it easy the rest of the game, France still found a way to score their 4th through Mbappe in the 88th minute, with the French captain hammering another shot past Cillessen for his 38th senior goal in international football.
The win over the Netherlands takes France top of Group B of the European Qualifier round with the Dutch sitting bottom of the five-team group.
