Kylian Mbappé does not lose an opportunity to mark history and this Tuesday he took another step by leading the victory of the French team against South Africa (5-0) in a friendly played 12 years after the “Bafana Bafana” humiliated the “bleus” in the World Cup held in their country.
It is true that the magnitude of the game had nothing to do with the one that certified the French disaster in South Africa, and that the rival, since then, has come less, but that did not detract one iota from the involvement of the still Paris Saint-Germain player. Germain.
With a museum goal he opened the scoring and with his energy on the pitch, well supported by an active Antoine Griezmann, he contributed to the good image that France, plagued by substitutes, left in their second friendly in four days.
Unlike the game against the Ivory Coast, where the Africans deserved better luck, South Africa acted as a helper against a world champion who has maintained the strength that has led them to chain 20 games without defeat.
If four days ago Mbappé was absent due to a respiratory illness, on this occasion he showed that his leadership is natural wherever he sets foot and left another lesson in involvement and talent.
With a superb touch from the corner of the area, which described an almost impossible parabola, he found the South African squad after 25 minutes and chained five international matches as a scorer.
The move came from the feet of Griezmann, who added his 61st game in a row with the “bleu”, synonymous with the importance that the “mattress holder” has for Didier Deschamps, and who ten minutes later took advantage of a loss by the Africans to give the second assist of the night, this time to Olivier Giroud, who resolved well against Williams.
The 35-year-old Milan striker, who was brought on at the last minute after Karim Benzema was injured, is making good use of this last chance. With this goal and the one he scored four days earlier, he now has 48 and is just three behind the top scorer in French history, Thierry Henry.
A fact that did not overshadow the feat of Mbappé, who in minute 52 crashed a ball into the crossbar, twelve later invented a pass to Digne that touched Williams’ post and in minute 74 he signed a play of great power and speed that only could be stopped with a penalty that he converted two minutes later.
Acclaimed by the public, his face showed the satisfaction of a conqueror, that of a man on whom the team also began to revolve, on the field and off it, because his refusal to lend his image to some sponsors marked the French concentration .
Wissam Ben Yedder, top scorer in the French league, took advantage of the few minutes that Deschamps gave him to achieve his third “bleu” goal, shortly before a tackle from Mudau to Lucas Digne, which the VAR saw as red, left South Africa with one less. In discount time, Marseille’s Mattéo Guendouzi signed up for the festival with his first international goal.
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