The French national team officially reserved its place in the next round of the 2026 World Cup, after achieving a deserved victory over its Iraqi counterpart with a score of 3-0, in the match that brought together the two teams in the second round of the group stage, in a match that witnessed a long pause of more than an hour between halftime due to bad weather conditions.
The “Roosters” imposed their advantage from the first minutes, and the star Kylian Mbappe succeeded in opening the scoring in the 14th minute after taking advantage of a perfect pass from Ousmane Dembélé. The ball went into the net, giving his country the early advantage.
Despite the Iraqi team's attempts to return to the atmosphere of the match, the French team maintained its lead until the end of the first half, before the confrontation stopped for a long period as a result of weather conditions that forced the organizers to temporarily stop play.
As the match resumed, France continued to control the course of the match, and Mbappe returned to confirm his country's superiority by scoring the second goal in the 54th minute after a new assist from Ousmane Dembélé, bringing him closer to the match. Writing a new historical record in the World Cup record.
And the French team was not satisfied with that, as Ousmane Dembélé added the third goal himself in the 66th minute after a pass from Oliseh, to settle the match once and for all and confirm France’s superiority by three clean goals.
The match witnessed a new personal achievement for Kylian Mbappe, after he raised his tally to 16 goals in the history of his participation in the World Cup, equaling the historic number of German legend Miroslav Klose, bringing him only two goals away. From the current record held by Lionel Messi, who has 18 goals.
With this victory, the French team raised its score to six full points, officially ensuring qualification for the knockout rounds, confirming its position as one of the most prominent candidates to compete for the title, while the Iraqi team bid farewell to the tournament after suffering its second loss in a row and diminishing its hopes of continuing the World Cup journey.