Captain Kylian Mbappe became France’s all-time leading men’s scorer with a double against Senegal as they ran out 3-1 winners.<\/p>\n
Mbappe, who went into the game on 56 goals, beat the record previously held by Olivier Giroud at 57.<\/p>\n
Senegal almost broke the deadlock twice in the first half when Nicolas Jackson’s effort smashed off a post and Ismaila Sarr fired over the bar on the cusp of half-time.<\/p>\n
However, France took charge after the break, with skipper Mbappe scoring in the 66th minute and substitute Bradley Barcola doubling their lead.<\/p>\n
A chaotic stoppage-time period saw Ibrahim Mbaye pull one back for Senegal, but just one minute later Mbappe had the final say with a stunning long-range strike and surpassed Giroud to become France\u2019s all-time men’s top goalscorer with 58 goals.<\/p>\n
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Senegal started well, with Jackson flicking the ball through to Sarr but the forward was denied by a solid block from Dayot Upamecano.<\/p>\n
Jackson was involved again in the 25th minute when his low strike rattled a post, with the rebound bouncing off Mike Maignan and behind for a corner.<\/p>\n
Pape Thiaw’s side continued to control the game and played some promising passes before Maignan comfortably held Sadio Mane\u2019s attempt from outside the box.<\/p>\n
Ousmane Dembele\u2019s curling free-kick was nodded away and he then hit a cross into the six-yard area, which took a deflection before reaching Kalidou Koulibaly, who turned the ball behind.<\/p>\n
On the stroke of half-time, Senegal came close again when Mane\u2019s pass from the left bobbled across the box and an unmarked Sarr drifted in, but sent his effort over the bar.<\/p>\n
Moments into the second half Desire Doue blasted the ball just past the upright and William Saliba made a smart sliding challenge to deny Sarr at the opposite end.<\/p>\n
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However, Les Bleus looked to threaten when Michael Olise weaved into the box and was denied by a solid stop from Edouard Mendy, who made another great save from Mbappe minutes later.<\/p>\n
A controversial moment around the hour mark saw France denied a spot-kick following a VAR review for Mane\u2019s challenge on Mbappe, with the on-field decision of no penalty standing.<\/p>\n
France eventually struck in the 66th minute when Mbappe guided Olise\u2019s pass into the bottom corner with a delicate first-time effort.<\/p>\n
Jackson thought he had equalised two minutes later, but was flagged offside and France remained in control.<\/p>\n
Only two minutes after coming onto the pitch, Barcola doubled their advantage in the 82nd minute, latching onto Adrien Rabiot\u2019s clever low pass and chipping the ball over Mendy.<\/p>\n
A chaotic finale followed where in the fifth minute of added time, Mbaye broke into the box and Maignan could not keep his powerful strike out to provide a glimmer of hope for Senegal.<\/p>\n
However, Mbappe responded one minute later with a fantastic shot from 30 yards out to wrap up three points.<\/p>\n
Les Bleus are back in Group I action on Monday against Iraq.<\/p>\n
Watch every game of the FIFA 2026 World Cup live on RT\u00c9 with highlights on RT\u00c9 Sport digital platforms and live blogs on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app <\/p>\n
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Listen to the RT\u00c9 Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Captain Kylian Mbappe became France’s all-time leading men’s scorer with a double against Senegal as they ran out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-503472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}