PHILADELPHIA — Kylian Mbappe scored his second brace of the tournament and France eased to a 3-0 victory over Iraq on Monday in the first match of this World Cup beset by a lengthy weather stoppage.
Mbappe’s goals came nearly three hours apart after thunderstorms in the region delayed the second-half kickoff by a shade under two hours.
They take him to 16 all-time World Cup tallies, pulling him level with former record-holder Miroslav Klose. Earlier Monday, Lionel Messi set a new benchmark of 18 career World Cup goals with his brace in Argentina’s 2-0 victory over Austria.
Mbappe’s four goals also place him one behind Messi in the 2026 Golden Boot race.
Reigning Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele also scored after halftime for two-time champions France (2-0-0, 6 points), who are assured to progress to the round of 32.
Their final group match will be against Norway, who were facing Senegal in the other Group I fixture Monday. That match, staged about two hours away by car in northern New Jersey, kicked off near-simultaneously with the start of the long-awaited second half here.
Iraq (0-2-0, 0 points) remain alive for one of the eight knockout spots allotted for third-place teams.
They’ll probably need a win in their group finale against Senegal and help elsewhere. And they could be without Aymen Hussein, who scored their only goal this tournament in their opener but exited Monday in the 26th minute with an apparent injury.
France dominated the early stages and Mbappe capitalized in the 14th minute.
On an innocent-looking sequence on the right, Mbappe received Michael Olise’s pass, took one touch to his left and, with Iraqi defenders affording him space, unfurled a powerful strike from the edge of the penalty area that sailed beyond Ahmed Basil’s dive.
The delay could’ve served as a recovery period for Iraq, who spent most of the match chasing the ball. Instead, they gifted France and Mbappe a second on a dreadful mistake from a goal kick.
Dembele was the provider for Mbappe’s tap-in. He scored 12 minutes later after controlling Olise’s incisive pass into the 18’ and finishing low past Basil.
With the outcome never in doubt, the weather provided the drama.
After referee Drew Fischer blew his halftime whistle as storms were already beginning, the skies opened further, and spectators were told to seek shelter in the stadium concourses.
Players finally re-emerged for warm-ups about 1 hour and 40 minutes later, and even then, the restart was delayed further as stadium personnel used squeegees to shuttle standing water off the east side of the pitch.
–Ian Nicholas Quillen, Field Level Media
