Yekaterinburg, Russia
At 19 years and 183 days, Mbappe became the youngest player to score for France’s national team on soccer’s biggest stage. And his reward was leading his squad into the round of 16 with a 1-0 victory over Peru on Thursday.
“I’ve always said that the World Cup is a dream for any player,” said Mbappe, who was born a few months after France won the 1998 title. “It is a dream come true, and I hope I will have more like this.”
With two wins from two matches in Group C, France is through to the next round with a match to spare. Peru was eliminated.
Paul Pogba, one of France’s best players, set up the 34th-minute goal for Mbappe. Pogba beat his defender and passed to Olivier Giroud, who then chipped the ball toward goal for Mbappe to easily tap in past goalkeeper Pedro Gallese.
France coach Didier Deschamps made a pair of tactical adjustments after an underwhelming performance in the team’s opening win over Australia. He put Giroud and Blaise Matuidi in the starting lineup but kept the same 4-3-2-1 formation with Giroud up front.
Both used their speed and passing to expose gaps in Peru’s backline.
Australia 1, Denmark 1
Samara, Russia
Christian Eriksen scored in the opening minutes for Denmark, which has gone unbeaten in 17 straight international matches. But Jussuf Poulsen’s handball after a video review set up Jedinak’s opportunity in the 38th minute.
Going into the tournament, No. 36 Australia was the lowest-ranked team in Group C with the others all in the top 12.
With a loss to France in the opener, a defeat Thursday would have made it nearly impossible for the Socceroos to advance to the next stage. Denmark, meanwhile, won its first match against Peru.
Brazil’s Neymar to Start
St. Petersburg, Russia
Although Brazil coach Tite said Neymar still needs time to reach peak shape, he insisted he is not endangering the striker’s health.
“Yes, he will be playing. There’s no sacrifice here,” Tite said through a translator Thursday. “We want to win but the coach is not going to play around with a player’s health, the price would be too high to pay.”
Tite also said he would use the same 11 players that were held to a 1-1 draw by Switzerland in the team’s opening match.
Neymar limped out of a training session on Tuesday after appearing to hurt his right ankle. But on Wednesday, the Brazilian soccer confederation posted photos and a video of Neymar training with the rest of the squad and said he was fine.
“It’s an evolutionary process. You need to speed up the steps,” Tite said. “He’s already speeded up that process.”
The world’s most expensive player, who joined Paris Saint-Germain for $260 million from Barcelona, only just made it to the World Cup after breaking a toe in his right foot on Feb. 25.
After recovering from surgery, Neymar played in two World Cup warm-up matches and scored in both to take his international tally to 55 goals.
But he lacked sharpness when Brazil opened its World Cup campaign with the draw against Switzerland on Sunday. Although Neymar was fouled 10 times during that match, he was still noticeably below his best.
On Thursday, Tite became angered after he was asked if he had spoken personally with Neymar to encourage him to be more unselfish.
“Absolutely not. The information you got is not true,” Tite shouted, his voice rising steeply as he called it a lie. “That didn’t happen.”
He then said it would be pointless to restrict Neymar’s way of playing.
“I’m not going to take his initiative away from him in the last third of the field, take away his genius,” Tite said. “The last third of the field is where you have to go to create chances, and I’m not going to take that away from anyone.”
Anything but victory could leave Brazil, one of the title favorites in Russia, in a difficult position to advance from the group stage.
Serbia leads Group E with three points after beating Costa Rica 1-0 and next plays Switzerland in Kaliningrad on Friday. Serbia and Brazil then meet on Wednesday in Moscow.
Brazil has no margin for error against Costa Rica, which won its group at the last World Cup and reached the quarterfinals.
“It is a decisive game, of course,” said Tite, who sat next to defender Thiago Silva. “You can’t run away from that.”
Silva will take over as captain from left back Marcelo because Tite is rotating the job. Silva was Brazil’s captain four years ago, when he was criticized for breaking down before a penalty shootout in the round of 16.
In Russia, he’s urging his teammates to be brave.
“The team is fully aware of what we are going to be facing tomorrow,” he said. “They didn’t start well but they are ready to recover. The fight is on.”