{"id":563136,"date":"2026-07-01T09:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T09:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/563136\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T09:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T09:21:13","slug":"world-cup-2026-france-dazzle-before-mexico-storm-forward-on-day-of-warnings-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/563136\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: France dazzle before Mexico storm forward on day of warnings \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Sweden<\/a> 3-0 down and stricken with a kind of vertigo, France<\/a> manager Didier Deschamps provided a small palliative by substituting Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a> and Michael Olise with five minutes of their last-32 tie remaining. As Mbapp\u00e9 made his way to the touchline, Deschamps grinned, stretched out his palms and bowed forward in supplication. It was an appropriate deference to the performance the World Cup had just seen. <\/p>\n

This was 3-0 going on 6-0. The French attack was a whirl and blur of slick and devastating movement, with Mbapp\u00e9 scoring twice and Olise assisting twice. Both struck the post too, Olise with an audacious overhead kick that was inches from being the goal of the tournament. Sweden manager Graham Potter said his side wouldn\u2019t have won even if they had been \u201cperfect\u201d, and this was a statement performance by the French. All France have left to establish is whether they will be remembered as heirs to the 1970 Brazil team that won the World Cup or the 1982 Brazil team that dazzled the world before shockingly succumbing to Italy. <\/p>\n

Ken Early was in New York for us and, true to the day\u2019s spirit of deference, Ken extends his humblest apologies to the hitherto dowdy Deschamps<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Mexico\u2019s late-night tie with Ecuador was deferred by an hour owing to the threat of electrical storms. When the game did kick-off, Ecuador were buffeted and blown away by the extreme intensity of the atmosphere at the Azteca. Inspired by breakout teenage star Gilberto Mora, Mexico scored twice in the first half to win a World Cup knockout match for the first time since they last hosted the tournament in 1986. England will play Mexico at the Azteca if they beat DR Congo later today, and should be duly forewarned. <\/p>\n

Norway have an ominous drumbeat of their own, celebrating in characteristic, Viking-rowboat style after Erling Haaland\u2019s late goal settled a seesawing tie against Ivory Coast. They face Brazil in the last 16. Remarkably, Norway remain the only team to have faced Brazil but never lost to them, boasting a record of two wins and two draws from their four previous encounters.<\/p>\n

This was a World Cup day of menacing augurs to send shivers down the spines of various teams who were otherwise resting. <\/p>\n

Results:<\/b> <\/p>\n

Round of 32 \u2013 Ivory Coast 1 (Diallo 74) Norway 2 (Nusa 39, Haaland 86)<\/p>\n

Round of 32 \u2013 France 3 (Mbapp\u00e9 45 74, Barcola 53) Sweden 0<\/p>\n

Round of 32 \u2013 Mexico 2 (Quinones 22, Jimenez 31) Ecuador 0<\/p>\n

Goal of the day:<\/b> Amad Diallo<\/p>\n

From rich pickings we pluck Amad Diallo\u2019s slaloming run and smart finish for Ivory Coast\u2019s equaliser against Norway. <\/p>\n

Moment of the day:<\/b> Danny Murphy laments his cat\u2019s disappearance<\/p>\n

Before substitute Oscar Bobb created Norway\u2019s winning goal with an incisive pass, he played an unlikely muse to BBC co-commentator Danny Murphy. \u201cI used to have a cat called Bob,\u201d said Murphy during the match. \u201cHe jumped in the back of a Royal Mail van and we lost him. Sad really. Anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Irish Times understands that the Murphy family have since found Postman Pat too triggering to watch. <\/p>\n

Picture of the day:<\/b> Mbapp\u00e9 made a beeline for his manager to celebrate his first goal against Sweden. Deschamps flew home last week to attend his mother\u2019s funeral. <\/p>\n

\"KylianKylian Mbapp\u00e9 of France celebrates with France’s head coach Didier Deschamps after scoring the opening goal against Sweden. Photograph: Sarah Yenesel\/EPA <\/p>\n

Question of the day:<\/b> Who has scored more World Cup goals, players called M\u00fcller or players called Ronaldo? (Answer below) <\/p>\n

Coming up today:<\/b> <\/p>\n

Round of 32 \u2013 England v DR Congo (5pm Irish time, RT\u00c92 & BBC)<\/p>\n

Round of 32 \u2013 Belgium v Senegal (9pm, RT\u00c92 & UTV)<\/p>\n

Round of 32 \u2013 USA v Bosnia and Herzegovina (1am, RT\u00c92 & BBC)<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in sport:<\/b> <\/p>\n

Louth have qualified for the All-Ireland semi-finals for the first time since 1957 and now our columnist Darragh O\u2019S\u00e9 pays them the ultimate compliment in explaining why the Wee County are no longer underdogs. <\/a><\/p>\n

Rugby\u2019s new Nations Championship gets under way this weekend, with Ireland kicking off against Australia. Gordon D\u2019Arcy explains why the competition is Ireland\u2019s most useful opportunity in two years<\/a>, while Gerry Thornley is in Sydney and hears from Hugo Keenan<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Answer to question:<\/b> It\u2019s players called M\u00fcller, 28-27 for now. M\u00fcllers 28 (Gerd 14, Thomas 10, Dieter 2, M\u00fcller from Brazil 2) Ronaldo 27 (Ronaldo Nazario 15, Cristiano 10, Ronaldinho 2).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Sweden 3-0 down and stricken with a kind of vertigo, France manager Didier Deschamps provided a small…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[229253,36,18,2220,19,17,118843,86748,388,11026,132,229983,9312,35350],"class_list":["post-563136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-didier-deschamps","tag-ecuador","tag-eire","tag-france","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ivory-coast","tag-kylian-mbappe","tag-mexico","tag-norway","tag-sports","tag-sports-briefing","tag-sweden","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116843989121178445","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}