Qatar 2022: France bounces back against Kazakhstan

After being held to a 1-1 draw by Ukraine in their Day 1 clash of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, France recorded maximum points against Kazakhstan with a 2-0 victory.

Les Blues were sharp this time around, going into the lead in the 19th minute and the first game.

Manchester United striker Anthony Martial produced a  clever turn and pass that set up Ousmane Dembele to open the scoring against the team ranked 122 in the world. Martial would have made it two if not for Sergiy Maliy’s fine clearance.

In the resulting corner of Antoine Griezmann, Sirgiy Maliy beats his goalkeeper a minute to the end of the first half.

In the second half, Martial’s free-kick was repelled by Mokin, and Deschamps’ men continued to be dangerous with their corner. In the next one taken by the Barcelona forward, Clement Lenglet’s header was saved by Mokin again. Martial got injured in the clash and was replaced by Kylian Mbappe.

France would have made it three six minutes later after Dembélé’s header was pushed away by Mokin for another corner.  After another save by Mokin from Mbappe’s effort, the PSG striker got France a penalty following an Alip foul in the area. Unfortunately, he missed the spot-kick.

France continued to push for the third. Substitute Adrien Rabiot, who got a good pass from Lucas Digne, was stopped by Mokin again in the 79th minutes.

Mokin further stopped Mbappe in the final minutes after receiving a pass from Moussa Sissoko.

Dembele won the man of the match title, distinguishing himself with impressive performance. This is in continuance of his present club form that has returned the Catalan club into the top four.

The win gives them four points from two games in Group D. Next on their schedule is the qualifying game on Wednesday away to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed