Nice (dpa) – Records, dream goals and a strange debut: The 14-0 win by France’s football stars against Gibraltar set some records. Never before has a European national team scored 14 goals in qualifying for a European Championship or World Cup.
The team around superstar Kylian Mbappé replaced the DFB team, which won the European Championship qualifiers 13-0 in San Marino in September 2006. “14 isn’t bad,” said national coach Didier Deschamps with a bit of a smile. “It was a perfect evening.”
Praise for Mbappé
The vice world champion has never scored more than ten goals before. France achieved their biggest win to date in September 1995 in the European Championship qualifiers when they beat Azerbaijan 10-0.
In addition to the records, the Équipe Tricolore impressed with dream goals. Mbappé scored from over 40 meters. With his hat-trick, the 24-year-old striker has now scored 300 competitive goals. Neither Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo nor Neymar could do that at that age. “He is perfect in his role as captain,” enthused Deschamps about his top player.
The 37-year-old Olivier Giroud ended the goal festival with a successful overhead kick in stoppage time. Bayern Munich’s Kingsley Coman also scored twice.
The youngest debutant
France’s top talent Warren Zaire-Emery celebrated an unusual premiere. At 17 years, eight months and ten days, the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder is the youngest debutant in almost 110 years. In the 16th minute, Zaire-Emery scored his first international goal.
However, with his goal, the game was over for the youngster. A hard foul by Gibraltar defender Ethan Santos while shooting on goal injured him and had to be substituted. Santos was shown a red card. Deschamps gave the first good signals immediately after the game. “Luckily it’s not very serious,” France’s coach said of the injury. “It’s a major sprain, but the ligaments are not affected.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa:231119-99-999667/2
2023-11-19 03:58:02
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