Key events
16 min Mbappé was outside the area, in the inside-right channel, but he hit the ball so hard with his left foot that it was as if it was point-blank. The keeper got there and just couldn’t hold on.
GOOOOOALLL! France 1-0 Iraq (Mbappe 14)
He’s done it again! In his 100th game! With a screamer, on his weaker foot!
12 min “Iraq are being physical with Spain,” one of the commentators said just now. We know what he means. The foul on Mbappé was by al-Ammari, who got an early yellow card for his trouble.
10 min A slow build-up from France, then they come to life as Dembele plays a one-two with Kounde. Nothing doing yet, but it doesn’t feel very far off.
7 min Foul! On Mbappé, as he makes a lightning-fast turn. France can’t make the free kick tell, but then Olise, who seems to have started at No 10 this time, floats a lovely ball to Mbappé. That brings a corner, a cross, a punch and a shot from Mbappée, curling wide. It’s all happening, already.
6 min The Iraqis are having plenty of possession. Overawed? Non!
3 min An elegant turn from Zidane Iqbal, dropping deep. He starts an attack that might well have brought a free kick, only the ref, Drew Fischer from Canada, didn’t spot a tug of a shirt by Manu Koné.
2 min France are in the area already. Lucas Digne reaches the lyline and plays a cut-back which is cleared. The ball comes back in and Mbappé is close to getting a touch. That would have been quite a way to start your 100th intermational game.
Kick-off
1 min Iraq kick off and do the PSG thing, straight into touch.
The teams come out, under what looks like heavy cloud cover, and the first anthem is the Marseillaise. Those swoops!
“Pedantic goalscoring email,” says Kieron O’Hara. “Fontaine’s 2.17 per game in 1958 is amazing, but I believe actually beaten by Sandor Kocsis in 1954, with 11 in 5 games, so 2.2. And the best average is surely Ernst Wilimowski for Poland in 1938, who scored 4 goals in his only game, so a pretty hot average of 4.
“Sorry to be boring.”
This is the MBM! A safe space where nobody needs to be afraid of being boring. And anyway, that wasn’t.
And here’s our reporter at the game, Paul MacInnes. “Ground already packed for a match that has been highly anticipated in Philly,” he writes. “The French are here is big numbers (I followed a load of them to the ground today) but the Iraqi contingent is hardly to be sniffed at. They’ve packed out the stand behind one goal, and have been visible all over the city for the past few days.
“Just quickly, but the pre-match has been a weird one. Big load of load music and two hype merchants in the stands getting everyone up. But not all attempts have proven equal. There was a big cheer for the players as the teams were read out (and especially Mbappé) but not so much interaction when the call went up for everyone to ‘Join us in a round of applause for peace!’. I can only imagine Gianni Infantino will be saddened when he hears the news.”
Another good line.
“It’s not impossible that Mbappé scores five tonight,” says Andrew Goudie. “And then Messi would be the shortest ever holder of that record. It would be even better if both got to the final with an equal number of goals.”
As long as you don’t support one of the other teams.
An email from the crowd. “We are in the France section,” says Talley Berry. “No sign of thunderstorms at the moment. Massive party atmosphere up here! Beautiful to see the playful, respectful interactions between the two sets of fans.”
Here’s Matjaz Hribar. “If there will be a storm in Philadelphia during the match,” he wonders, “will FIFA cancel the hydration break and introduce a drying break?” Good question!
And another! “But Tim,” says Dan on a warm Norfolk coast, “Just Fontaine scored 13 in six games in 1958. No-one is bettering that average.”
Good point! Dan is picking up on the fact that some idiot suggested Mbappe had the best goals per match of any World Cup player, when in fact it’s just among players to have appeared in more than one World Cup. That too should be sorted below.
Messi has five goals in two games in this tournament, so technically, right now, he has bettered that average. He’s on 2.5, to Fontaine’s 2.17. But of course there’s a long way to go. And many more teams are involved in 2026, so the early games may be easier for the big guns.
The first email has landed, some time ago actually. “‘He needs only a hat-trick to grab the all-time World Cup record,’” says Steve Gisselbrecht, quoting an early version of my preamble. “Oh please. That’s so 20 minutes ago.”
Good line! And sorry for the blooper – I wrote it in advance, planning to give it a tweak in the light of whatever Lionel Messi had up his sleeve, and thanks to a misunderstanding it went live a little earlier than expected. It’s fixed now – at least I hope so.
There’s been a spectacular storm in Philadelphia. Thunder, lightning, the lot. It led to a request for fans to delay their arrival, but the gates are open now.
The teams: three changes apiece
Both managers have made three changes. Didier Deschamps brings in Lucas Digne for Theo Hernandéz at left-back, Manu Koné for Aurélien Tchouaméni in the pivot and Bradley Barcola for Désiré Doué on the left wing. William Saliba, who was doubtful, has been passed fit.
Graham Arnold shakes things up even more, changing his goalie as Ahmed Basil replaces Jalal Hassan. That means changing the captain too as Hassan hands the armband to Aymen Hussein. Arnold also brings in Zidane Iqbal, once of Manchester United, at No 10 and Ahmed Qasem on the left. Ali Jasim drops to the bench and so does Ali al-Hamadi, in a cruel blow for Britons who can name only one Iraqi footballer. Hell, Arnold even seems to have changed his formation, from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1.
France (4-2-3-1) Mike Maignan; Jules Koundé, Dayot Upamecano, William Saliba, Lucas Digne; Manu Koné, Adrien Rabiot; Michael Olise, Ousmane Dembêlé, Bradley Barcola; Kylian Mbappe.
Iraq (possible 4-2-3-1) Ahmed Basil; Hussein Ali, Zaid Tahseen, Akam Hashem, Merchas Doski; Zaid Ismael, Amir al-Ammari; Ibrahim Bayesh, Zidane Iqbal, Ahmed Qasem; Aymen Hussein.
(Subs to follow!)
Latest on Birthgate. There’s been a climbdown from L’Equipe, one of whose presenters said, à propos Jérémy Doku, that there was no point in a father witnessing the birth of his child. More importantly, the Doku baby has now arrived. It’s a boy called Praise, born in London – which means he will have the option of playing for England, should he become a footballer too.
Preamble
Evening everyone and welcome to the Kylian Mbappé show. He’s the captain of France, he’s the biggest name in a team full of stars, in fact the biggest name in this World Cup among all those who have yet to turn 38. He needs four more goals to share the all-time World Cup record which Lionel Messi has just set. And Mbappé is already the GOAT in terms of goals per match, among those who have scored at more than one World Cup. He has 14 from 15, just pipping Pelé, who has 12 from 14, staying well clear of Messi, who has 18 from 28, and possibly enraging Cristiano Ronaldo, who has only eight from 23.
Tonight, in Philadelphia, Mbappé will win his 100th cap. The stage is set, but it still takes two to tango. Can Iraq emulate Iran by pulling off a triumphant 0-0? They have never won a point at a World Cup, so it will be a surprise if they manage it against a team as good as France. But they love a challenge and don’t mind a bit of hard work: it took them 21 qualifiers to get here, more than any other nation. And in the Australian Graham Arnold, they have a manager so prone to positive thinking that when others talk of a group of death, he sees only a “group of excitement”.
Mbappé works hard too. France have played only once, against Senegal, but he has watched that game twice. Maybe he was trying to work out why it took them more than an hour to find the net, albeit against a gifted team. The final score, 3-1, may have flattered France, whose defence looked brittle with William Saliba at left centre-back rather than right, where he’s so commanding for Arsenal.
The Iraqis, on the other hand, can feel rather insulted by their first result, a 4-1 defeat to Norway. They were level for much of the first half, spirited and sparky throughout, and had 11 shots, only one fewer than their opponents. They might well have grabbed that elusive point if their finishing had been calmer – or if Erling Haaland had changed sides, as your old school coach would surely have insisted.
The kick-off is at 5pm in Philly, which is 10pm BST. Back soon with the teams.
