France-Australia (4-1): end of the champion’s curse, top 5 … numbers to remember

This is quite a successful exit, if you remove the severe and early injury of the left flank of Lucas Hernandez. The Blues kicked off their World Cup on Tuesday night with a resounding 4-1 win against the Australians, winning Group D ahead of Denmark and Tunisia at the same time. Successful undertakings that we summarize for you in a few key figures.

The Blues guarantee like Brazil in 2006.

A world champion who wins for his return to the world championship has become a rarity. Here, you even have to go back to 2006 and Brazil’s 1-0 victory over Croatia at the World Cup in Germany to find it. Since then Italy 2010 has drawn (1-1) with Paraguay, Spain 2014 has lost to the Netherlands (5-1) and Germany has been selected by Mexico (1-0) four years ago. By dominating the Oceanians, France kept their place, unlike in 2002 when they lost to Senegal (1-0) from the start. Does this mean that this is the end of the reigning champion’s curse, systematically eliminated since 2010? In any case, everything went well.

Giroud equals Henry… and surpasses Zidane

This was the highlight of this match on the side of the tricolor. With his double, Olivier Giroud scored his 50th and especially 51st goal in the blue jersey, which allows him to equal Thierry Henry and become the second goalscorer in the history of the Blues. History, and not only at this level. The Milan centre-forward also became the oldest French director in the World Cup at the age of 36 years and 53 days. Until Tuesday evening, the oldest Frenchman to score at the World Cup was Zinedine Zidane, who at the age of 34 converted a panenka penalty in the final against Italy.

Concept in top 5 tricolor…

There was Giroud, but there was also Mbappe. A prolific but also determined passer, the PSG striker did not miss his reunion with a rival who opened his eyes to the planet in Russia four years ago. His second-half header also saw him become one of the top five scorers in French history at the World Cup, along with his attacking partner on Tuesday, Antoine Griezmann.

Both men now have four goals, even if Grisu is playing their third World Cup. Kylian Mbappé is just one unit away from the podium where Michel Platini and Zinedine Zidane appear, the authors of five achievements at three world championships. Thierry Henry, with his six goals, is second only to Just Fontaine with his 13 goals in the 1958 World Cup.

…and in line with the big surface foxes

Another statistic that illustrates Kylian Mbappe’s contribution in this meeting is the number of goals he has hit in the opponent’s zone. Only 19 points for crack Bondi. And yes, it’s a lot. To give you an idea, Opta’s statistician claims that this is unheard of in World Cup matches since the 1970 World Cup, when Italy’s Luigi Riva and Germans Uwe Seeler and Gerd Müller inherited as much, if not more, ball in a match. zone of truth.

The Blues are on the attack.

Okay, France got off to a bad start with that conceded goal from the start. But behind, the Blues performed very poorly, as evidenced by the statistics released by FIFA. Didier Deschamps’ team fired 22 shots, including 18 from the Australian box, recording seven attempts. In contrast, Australia fired four times and set up only once on their own goal.

France also touched the ball 106 times between the midfield and the opposing defence, nearly double that of the evening’s opposition. Finally, the Blues made 66 trips to the last thirty meters of Australia, where the latter came to tickle us in the area a total of 28 times. In short, there is nothing to say, but you saw it well.