Olivier Giroud struck twice to help the defending World Cup champions, France, open their Group D campaign with a come-from-behind win over Australia.
Another stunning upset looked to be on the cards at Al Janoub Stadium when Australia took a shock lead against the French through Craig Goodwin in just the ninth minute. The bigger worry for France at the time was Lucas Hernandez leaving the pitch with an ACL injury which later ruled him out of the tournament.
It did not take long for Didier Deschamps’s side to find its groove.
Adrien Rabiot got their equaliser from a Theo Hernandez cross in the 27th minute before Giroud put away a nifty team move in the 32nd minute becoming France’s oldest scorer in the world cup in the process.
Mbappe joined the party with a goal in the second half before Giroud scored his second from a Mbappe assist to tie Thierry Henry for the most international goals scored.
It took Giroud, who owed his place in the starting lineup to Benzema’s absence, 115 international appearances to score his 51 goals, while Henry needed 123 from 1997-2010.
The win over Australia puts France in the driving seat of advancing from the group phase of the World Cup, something Italy in 2010, Spain in 2014 and Germany in 2018 failed to do.
In other games, Tunisia drew Denmark and Poland settled for a draw against Mexico with both games ending 0-0.
Today three more games will be played, Morocco vs Croatia – at 3:00 PM, Germany vs Japan – at 6:00 PM and Spain vs Costa Rica – at 9:00 PM.
