PHILADELPHIA: France manager Didier Deschamps suggested Kylian Mbappe will eventually claim the all-time World Cup goals record after the 27-year-old striker scored his second double of the tournament in Mondays 3-0 win over Iraq.

Mbappe’s third and fourth goals of the finals pulled him level with Germany’s former all-time record holder Miroslav Klose on 16 for his career.

He is now two behind Lionel Messi, who has already scored five times in this tournament despite approaching his 39th birthday following his brace against Austria earlier on Monday.

Well, records are there to be broken, Deschamps said in the post-match press conference. And now he has a symbolic figure. He has 100 caps. He’s always scored goals. He will score more goals.

“Take Messi, take (Cristiano) Ronaldo. I’m not sure that Kylian will play up to their age, but as long as he’s on the pitch and as he feels right, he will score a lot of goals,” Deschamps said. “Every time he beats his own record, he does have the capacity to up his ante.”

Mbappe’s latest double was perhaps his most unusual, the goals coming nearly three hours apart in the first match of this World Cup beset by a lengthy weather delay.

What did France do during the delay?

“We played cards,” Deschamps quipped. No, well, we were waiting. We had slots that kept being pushed forward again. And what is most important with my … colleague (Iraq manager) Graham (Arnold) is to have the 20 minutes to do another warm-up, to not take any risks.

“There was a lot of rain that made the pitch very heavy. It was the first time that it happened to me. Same for my players.”

Deschamps admitted the ordeal was frustrating, but also felt there was little anyone could have done differently.As for the other goalscorer, Ousmane Dembele, Deschamps hoped the reigning Ballon d’Or winner was just getting started after his first of the tournament.

“Be easy on Ousmane,” he said. “There’s no issue with Ousmane. He also needs to re-adapt to a system in which he doesn’t play throughout the year.”

“As long as Ousmane is well physically, and this is the case, then it’s just fine-tuning. I trust in Ousmane. He knows that. And he’s not somebody who doubts and doing what he did today, it’s important because he’s a decisive player.”

STILL HAVE CHANCE TO GO THROUGH

Iraq may have been on the wrong end of another superstar striker masterclass, but manager Graham Arnold insists his team’s tournament dreams remain intact.

The Australian coach is keeping his eyes firmly fixed on Friday’s crucial final group match against Senegal, where Iraq’s hopes of reaching the knockout phase hang in the balance.

“For me now, it’s all about Senegal,” Arnold said. “With … eight third-placed teams going through. You know, we’ve still got a chance.”

Arnold praised his team’s first-half performance despite Mbappe’s opener from distance, but lamented how the lengthy weather delay seemed to disrupt their rhythm. A costly goal-kick error immediately after the restart gifted France their second goal.

“Well, you know, there’s nothing I could do except I showed probably a little bit longer footage of the first half at halftime to show them where France was obviously hurting us a little bit,” Arnold explained.

“But it was more the players just had to sit and relax and keep relaxed and then get themselves obviously ready when we went back out there.”

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2026