For all the phoney petitions and haters from Paris to Madrid, there is just one trifling problem: even on his bad days, no one changes the course of a World Cup match quite like Kylian Mbappe.
And for that reason, France are up and running. Unlike Spain, Brazil, Belgium and the Netherlands, there was no slip here. No points dropped.
Why? Well, we can talk about a few details on that one. But we should start and finish with Mbappe, because for 65 minutes he was having a stinker. Nothing was going for him. And nothing was going for France. They had been fairly abject, actually, and Didier Deschamps was starting to look daft for a few of his choices.
But then Mbappe happened. He scored for 1-0, a good finish, and then he scored again for 3-1 in stoppage time, and that was sublime – a 30-yarder that dipped over Edouard Mendy and broke a record.
Before Tuesday afternoon, Olivier Giroud was France’s greatest goalscorer on 57. By the evening Mbappe was on 58. But more pertinently, he also has 14 at World Cups and that’s more than Pele and Lionel Messi. Two more and he’ll tie Miroslav Klose at the top of the list.
Kylian Mbappe was the star of the show for France with two goals in a 3-1 win over Senegal
For France, the recurring relief is that this generational talent belongs to them. There is validity in some of the more sensible queries around his defensive contributions, but no attacking player stamps more authority on the big occasion than Mbappe. Across the past eight years, this tournament is his playground.
But Deschamps does need to learn from this win and some of that will involve Mbappe, because he is integral to a forward unit that initially struggled here.
SQUARE PEGS, ROUND HOLES
For Deschamps, one of the big challenges of the World Cup will come from the sifting of nine attacking players into four spots. For this opener, he sided with Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Michael Olise and Desire Doue, and who would blame him for picking his four biggest names?
But dynamics win tournaments. Pairings. Synergies. And it was clear from the start here that some of the components were misplaced – Doue was fielded in his least favoured spot on the left and Dembele was placed behind Mbappe, having spent the majority of his Ballon d’Or season up front or on the right.
For much of the match, the machine failed. Primarily, Mbappe looked isolated and much of that tracks to his relationship with Dembele – as a pairing in this 4-2-3-1 configuration, they have often appeared to lack a mutual understanding and that was the case again. Too often, Dembele failed to pick the right pass for Mbappe’s runs and, when he did, Mbappe’s touch let him down. They were both poor in the first half.
DESCHAMPS WISDOM
A good coach knows how to adapt and Deschamps is a very good coach. His changes here helped change the game. In the first instance, that meant moving Olise into a central role at the start of the second half and moving Dembele to the right. That was arguably the most influential decision of the match – Olise went on to excel.
His ball for Mbappe’s opener was exquisite and bypassed three Senegal defenders, and came just moments after an equally brilliant through-ball that Mbappe failed to control.
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Mbappe’s second was a stunning strike from distance to ensure France began with a victory
THE BARCOLA QUESTION
A second Deschamps change was also influential and will reverberate in the days between now and the matches against Iraq and Norway. That was the introduction of Bradley Barcola for Dembele. Barcola scored a fine goal, but more prescient to his claim to start is that unlike Doue, left wing is his best position. He was far more natural in the spot and, as such, gives greater stability to the entire side.
Doue’s situation is therefore quite interesting. Although he was menace on the ball, he repeatedly drifted inland, with the idea being that Theo Hernandez would step forward from left back to cover. One problem there: who was covering for Hernandez? Ismaila Sarr attacked those spaces with regular success, which ought to have been noted as a potential blueprint by Norway, among others.
DEFENCE WOUNDS
For Deschamps, attack will only be the best form of defence against opposition who fail to exploit it. Senegal, plainly, are a good team but they had four men of 34 or older, five older than 30. Their golden generation has aged.
But still they caused damage. Most notably, Nicolas Jackson hit the post at 0-0 and Ismaila also skied an excellent chance in first-half stoppage time. The presence of William Saliba after a back injury was no doubt a boost, and possibly essential as a legitimately world-class defender to balance all those attackers, but he didn’t look fully fit.
Bradley Barcola also impressed as he made his case for a starting spot to Didier Deschamps
Of greater concern is the need for a solid midfield shelf – Adrien Rabiot continues to appear out of place in this galaxy of stars and failed to get a grip on the centre of the pitch.
Deschamps would be entitled to identify those areas for improvement, but the benefit of exceptional attackers is their habit of changing games. In Mbappe he has the greatest game-changer of all.
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