France opened its 2026 World Cup campaign with a 3-1 win over Senegal on Tuesday night, recovering after a long, tense spell to start the tournament in style. The match was played under heavy pressure, but the French side delivered when it mattered most.
Kylian Mbappe broke the deadlock in the 66th minute with a big goal after more than an hour of resistance from Senegal. Substitute Bradley Barcola doubled the lead two minutes after coming on, but Senegal pulled one back in stoppage time, setting up a dramatic finish.
Mbappe then sealed the result in the 95th minute with a spectacular long-range strike into the top corner, one of the standout goals of the tournament so far. The Paris Saint-Germain forward, now with Real Madrid, was credited by L'Equipe for turning France's pressure into goals, with the paper praising Michael Olise's pass and noting that Edouard Mendy could not stop Mbappe's finish from 25 meters.
The brace took Mbappe to 58 goals for France, moving him past Olivier Giroud as the national team's all-time leading scorer. He also reached 14 World Cup goals, drawing level with Gerd Muller and moving ahead of Pele, Lionel Messi and Just Fontaine on the tournament's all-time scoring list. The three goals in the opener also meant France surpassed its poor scoring return from Euro 2022, when it reached the semifinals but finished the entire tournament with just one open-play goal.
