What you should know about FIFA – that’s the football World Cup, which you couldn’t watch last night, but want to sound smart about, at the office water-cooler today.
Yes, Express has your FOMOF covered. That’s Fear of Missing Out (on) Football.
Here’s your name-dropping check-list for Day 3, November the Twenty First, France vs Australia.
He may look anything like it, but at 36, Olivier Giroud has become France’s oldest player to score for France at a World Cup. But that’s just a mention in his decorated career.
The impressive bit is that Giroud joined Thierry Henry as France’s all-time leading goalscorer by scoring a brace as holders France recovered from a goal down to beat Australia 4-1 and get their defence of the World Cup off to a winning start.
Just nine minutes into the match, Australia took a shock lead through Craig Goodwin and France, whose build-up to the tournament was marred by injuries to their stars like Karim Benzema, Paul Pogba and N’golo Kante, seemed like they were in trouble.
They managed to recover and equalise through Adrien Rabiot before Giroud put them ahead with an easy finish in the 32nd minute for his 50th international goal.
Kylian Mbappe got his name on the scoresheet in the second half and Giroud sealed the win to equal Henry’s record tally of 51 goals for France.
“Overcoming difficulties and doubts has been very important to me over the years. I always recover, I am like that. My friends and my brother used to say that I was always at my best when I was cornered. If 20 years old. I was told that I would win so many trophies and experience so many amazing things, I never imagined it. I feel very lucky,” Giroud said back in 2020, in a conversation with Ukraine football legend Andriy Shevchenko.
After Giroud led France to the 2018 World Cup title, he didn’t play too much at the 2020 European Championships for Les Bleus after Benzema ended his feud with coach Didier Deschamps and returned to the squad.
In fact, he was ready to warm the bench at this World Cup too, but Benzema’s injury three days before France’s opener meant that Giroud would no longer be on the sidelines.
Just as he has shown before, at his current club AC Milan and before at Chelsea and Arsenal, he can be dependable.
He’s fierce in the air, often scoring with his head, meaning that France would want to float some crosses into the box.
Though he’s the main striker, he loves playing as a False No. 9. Meaning his off-the-ball movements is what’s actually crucial to his team. If he can pull the defenders with him, as he does so brilliantly, and make space for Mbappe to make his uncatchable runs, France could very well become the first team to defend the FIFA World Cup.
