Mbappe rockets send a shudder through England

Poles axed by France’s unstoppable frontman

THERE were times when Kylian Mbappe seemed, in his mind’s eye, to be back in Paris’s 19th arrondissement, waving his foot over the ball, playing with defenders, a million options and all the time he needed to select one.

Then there were the thunderbolts: two shots of such power with such minimal back-lift after intuitive movement which bought him all the time in the world.

For the first goal, the ball was despatched at a frightening 81mph per hour. Wojciech Szczesny will just tell you that he blinked and it was past him at his near post.

After the second — a ball eased back in front of Kamil Glik and punched, hard and fast, beyond the 6ft 4in frame of an in-form goalkeeper — Mbappe made a pistol gesture, though it was more sophisticated than gunfire. He’d stolen around the edge of the area so that two defenders had lost any sense of him when he fastened on to the ball. A moment’s hesitation, a fractional mental hesitancy, and you’re done for with him.

We do now know a little more about the courage needed to be taken for any team trying to stop France. The errors they’re capable of when you press them high up the pitch. The occasional loose pass as they try to play out. There was a dropped Hugo Lloris ball just before half-time. Jules Kounde spent more time taking off his rainbow necklace than dealing with Poland’s right wing-back Bartosz Bereszynski, who danced past him to create a chance which Lloris repelled with his knees.

There is the perennial French anxiety. Their people know that they are always only ever one game away from an unlikely exit. ‘Always hesitating between the suitcases and the great adventure,’ as one of their writers put it yesterday.

But that seems to be clutching at straws. Perhaps the shrewdest assessment in the aftermath was Polish manager Czeslaw Michniewicz’s definition on how to solve the Mbappe conundrum: ‘I asked more players to approach him, to stop him. But there’s no recipe. No coach knows a recipe to stop Mbappe in the form he is in now.’

The 23-year-old delivered as he did because of those around him, in a team whose balance is one of its finest qualities. There was Antoine Griezmann, switched from his usual forward’s role to a midfield position to supply him. That axis wasn’t working until Didier Deschamps switched Griezmann to the right in the second half.

There was Olivier Giroud, fed by Mbappe for an opening goal which took him past Thierry Henry as France’s record goalscorer. ‘Both need each other,’ Deschamps said of Giroud and Mbappe.

But it’s very hard to look beyond the man himself. One of the Poles had said before this game that you would need a motorbike to stop him and everyone on Mbappe’s side of the pitch knew exactly what he meant. Particularly Aston Villa’s Matty Cash, who had his Polish maternal grandparents to thank for this unenviable challenge.

Polish intentions were perfectly fine and reasonable on what happened to be Miners’ Day in their homeland. Dig in. But at one point in the first half, retreating defender Przemyslaw Frankowski had a five-yard head start on Mbappe and still lost the race.

Yet it wasn’t even Mbappe’s pace which broke the Polish resistance, just before half-time. He’d dropped innocuously into one of the central corridors from which France had not been getting much joy, when he threaded the ball through two defenders to find Giroud. The striker did well to wrap his left foot around the ball and navigate in his record-breaking goal.

Giroud gestured the number — ‘52’ — and it’s some accomplishment for a player who has not always been appreciated. Some of the frustrations of old were evident in him. Three balls into the six-yard box would have been finished by more clinical forwards.

But the man has an intelligence which told hugely in the moments before Mbappe’s first strike. Taking down a ball heaved out of defence by Griezmann, he powered into Polish territory, drawing attention to Ousmane Dembele, by finding him on the right, and away from Mbappe, who despatched the ball like an Exocet when it reached him. Marcus Thuram beat Cash on the wing and found Mbappe in the box for the third. He took a touch to get himself free and curled the ball into the far top corner.

Robert Lewandowski, a relatively marginal figure, scored from the penalty spot at the end — a retake after Lloris moved a foot off his line when saving the first.

The man of the moment wore an uncompromising look when he arrived in the press conference room last night. He volunteered to say that he had avoided a previous appearance here because he only had thoughts for the football, not journalists, and would pay the fine. ‘I came here to win the World Cup, not a Golden Ball or a Golden Boot,’ was his curt reply when that subject came up.

Boy has become man in the space of four years. He seems capable of taking France wherever they want to go.

FRANCE (4-3-3): Lloris 6.5; Kounde 5.5 (Disasi 90min), Varane 6, Upamecano 6, Hernandez 6.5; Griezmann 7.5, Tchouameni 5.5 (Fofana 65, 6), Rabiot 6; Dembele 6.5 (Coman 76), Giroud 7 (Thuram 76), MBAPPE 8.5. Scorers: Giroud 44, Mbappe 74, 90+1. Booked: Tchouameni.

Manager: Didier Deschamps 7.

POLAND (4-5-1): Szczesny 6.5; Cash 7, Glik 7, Kiwior 7 (Bednarek 87), Bereszynski 6.5; Krychowiak 6 (Bielik 71, 6.5), Kaminski 5.5 (Zalewski 71, 6), Zielinski 6, Szymanski 5.5 (Milik 65, 6), Frankowski 6 (Grosicki 87); Lewandowski 6. Scorer: Lewandowski 90+9 (pen). Booked: Cash, Bereszynski. Manager: Czeslaw Michniewicz 6.

Referee: Jesus Valenzuela (Venezuela) 6. Attendance: 40,989.

There was no stopping the speed merchant. He despatched the ball like an Exocet