France powered into the FIFA World Cup Round of 16 with a dominant 3-0 victory over Sweden on Tuesday, led by another brilliant performance from captain Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, who scored twice to tie Lionel Messi for the tournament lead with six goals.<\/p>\n
Playing in front of more than 80,000 fans at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, France controlled the match from start to finish, setting up a Round of 16 showdown with Paraguay National Football Team on July 4.<\/p>\n
Mbapp\u00e9 opened the scoring in first-half stoppage time with a dazzling move that left Sweden\u2019s defense helpless. The French star beat his marker with a quick crossover step before firing a precise finish into the far corner for his 61st international goal.<\/p>\n
France doubled its advantage in the 53rd minute through Bradley Barcola after a costly Swedish turnover. The move was created by midfielder Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni and tournament standout Michael Olise, whose creative play has become a key weapon for Les Bleus.<\/p>\n
Mbapp\u00e9 sealed the victory in the 74th minute following a slick attacking sequence involving Barcola and Olise. The goal marked his third multi-goal performance in four World Cup matches and pushed his career World Cup total to 18 goals, just one behind Messi\u2019s all-time tournament record.<\/p>\n
The French superstar also established a new World Cup knockout-stage scoring record with 10 goals, surpassing Brazilian legends Le\u00f4nidas and Ronaldo, who previously shared the record with eight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very aware of who I am, how I play, what I shall do, but it\u2019s not just about me,\u201d Mbapp\u00e9 said after the match. \u201cThe entire team is aware of what should be done. It is a new competition that has started today.\u201d<\/p>\n
France head coach Didier Deschamps praised his team\u2019s focus after returning to the squad following his mother\u2019s funeral in France. The emotional moment was highlighted when Mbapp\u00e9 celebrated his opening goal by embracing his coach on the sideline.<\/p>\n
France, runners-up at the previous World Cup, have emerged as one of the tournament favorites after scoring 13 goals while conceding only two through the opening stages. Olise has been instrumental in the run, contributing five assists so far.<\/p>\n
Sweden struggled to cope with France\u2019s attacking quality, managing only seven shots compared to France\u2019s 25. Captain Victor Lindel\u00f6f acknowledged the challenge of facing one of the world\u2019s elite football nations after the defeat.<\/p>\n
The victory sends France into the knockout phase with growing momentum as they pursue a third consecutive World Cup final appearance. A win over Paraguay would advance Les Bleus to a quarterfinal clash against either Canada Men’s National Soccer Team or Morocco National Football Team.<\/p>\n
For Mbapp\u00e9, the performance further strengthens his case as the tournament\u2019s standout player and keeps him firmly on course to challenge Messi\u2019s World Cup scoring record while chasing football\u2019s biggest prize.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
France powered into the FIFA World Cup Round of 16 with a dominant 3-0 victory over Sweden on Tuesday, led by another brilliant performance from captain Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, who scored…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":20344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3672,30727,30729,15362,30739,28333,24882,30730,30737,28993,30732,30743,30722,30723,28735,28334,30741,30725,30724,30738,30731,30728,30733,30740,30735,30726,30742,29833,28767,30734,30736],"class_list":["post-20342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-amat","tag-bradley-barcola","tag-didier-deschamps","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-fifa-world-cup-knockout-round","tag-fifa-world-cup-news","tag-football-news","tag-france-3-0-sweden","tag-france-football","tag-france-national-team","tag-france-round-of-16","tag-france-victory","tag-france-vs-sweden","tag-france-world-cup","tag-international-football-news","tag-kylian-mbappe","tag-les-bleus","tag-lionel-messi","tag-mbappe-goals","tag-mbappe-highlights","tag-mbappe-world-cup-record","tag-michael-olise","tag-paraguay-vs-france","tag-soccer-news-2026","tag-victor-lindelof","tag-world-cup-knockout-stage","tag-world-cup-leading-scorer","tag-world-cup-records","tag-world-cup-results","tag-world-cup-soccer","tag-world-cup-tournament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}