EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) 鈥� France’s fearsome foursome of Kylian Mbapp茅, Ousmane Demb茅l茅, Michael Olise and Bradley Barcola leaves opponents exclaiming: Sacr茅 bleu!
鈥淭heir four up front is the best in the competition by far,鈥� Norway coach St氓le Solbakken said.
France became the first nation to score three or more goals in five consecutive World Cup matches when it Tuesday and advanced to a round of 16 match against Paraguay this weekend. Seeking to reach their third straight World Cup final, Les Bleus are a favorite to dethrone defending champion Argentina.
鈥淭here is something that we cannot hide, that we have a lot of quality in the team,” French midfielder N鈥橤olo Kant茅 said. 鈥滲ut I think it鈥檚 the same for many other teams. We cannot see ourselves too beautiful or too strong.”
After defeating Croatia for , France lost to Argentina on penalty kicks in . Les Bleus are 4-0 in this year’s tournament, outscoring opponents 13-2.
鈥淲e always have to be more and more demanding because the opponents that we鈥檙e going to face are going to be demanding,鈥� France coach Didier Deschamps said. 鈥淲e need to fine-tune things and transform some negative points. Even though we didn鈥檛 have a lot of consequences, we did concede two goals.鈥�
after getting his third brace Tuesday. Demb茅l茅 is tied for fourth with four goals.
Olise leads with five assists, while Mbappe and Dembele have two apiece. Barcola has a goal and two assists.
Mbapp茅 scored 18 goals in 18 World Cup games, one behind of 19 in 29 matches.
鈥淚 know that I do have qualities but I do have to show them on the largest stage that is the World Cup,鈥� Mbapp茅 said.
France is using a 4-2-3-1 formation and Deschamps allows freedom to be fluid.
鈥淭hey come in different positions. They鈥檙e not static,鈥� Swedish forward Viktor Gy枚keres said. 鈥淭hey know each other well in how they move and their connection between each other.鈥�
Deschamps a constant to France’s success
Captain of France鈥檚 1998 champions, Deschamps took over as manager in 2012 and announced in January he will . The victory over Sweden was his record 18th as a World Cup coach.
Les Bleus scored 14 goals over seven games in winning the 1998 World Cup, 12 when it captured its second title in 2018 and 16 four years ago.
鈥淲e鈥檙e very much more offensive than in 2018 and in 2022,鈥� Mbapp茅 said through a translator. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the continuity of what we started to build throughout Didier Deschamps鈥� tenure over the last 14 years. You can see the evolution, his personal touch, and the arrival of a lot of young talent.鈥�
France has overtaken Argentina for No. 1 in FIFA’s rankings. Its four wins have come against teams currently ranked 18th (Senegal), 63rd (Iraq), 21st (Norway) and 37th (Sweden).
Paraguay, its next opponent Saturday, is 34th. Potential quarterfinal opponents include Morocco (sixth) and Canada (30th). Spain (No. 3) looms as a semifinal opponent.
Impressing opponents
Sweden coach Graham Potter proclaims France is the best team he’s seen in the tournament.
鈥淏ecause of the players in the wide areas, sometimes you have the double up on them because they could just beat you in 1-v.-1 situations,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd then they鈥檝e got not a bad striker in the middle. So you鈥檝e got problems here and you鈥檝e got problems here. And then it can also build up with good control, strong center backs, so direct football isn鈥檛 easy against them either.”
France is bidding to become just the third nation to reach three straight World Cup finals after Germany (1982-90) and Brazil (1994-2002).
鈥淲e have really good memories, also bad ones with what happened the last time that we played the World Cup,鈥� said midfielder Aur茅lien Tchouam茅ni, a member of the 2022 team. 鈥淓verybody is ready to fight and to give everything to make sure that all the French people are going to be proud of us.鈥�
___
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
