Man City 2026 World Cup Watch: Rayan Cherki makes late appearance as France cruise beyond Sweden | OneFootball

Rayan Cherki, once again, made a late appearance from the substitutes’ bench during France’s comfortable 3-0 win over Sweden in the last-32.

Despite the scorching East Coast heat, Les Bleus dominated from the first whistle as Kylian Mbappé saw an early effort ruled out for offside and hit the post from a low Jules Koundé cross, while Michael Olise rattled the upright with a scissor kick.

Sweden goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterström made a string of exceptional saves to keep the French at bay, but his resistance was broken on half-time when Mbappé latched onto Ousmane Dembélé’s slide-rule pass, wrong-footed Viktor Gyökeres, and picked out the far corner.

Sweden missed a golden opportunity to equalise immediately when Elliot Stroud blazed over from 12 yards, which proved to be their final stand.

The second half belonged entirely to the French attack as Bradley Barcola doubled the advantage just eight minutes after the restart, driving a powerful effort into the near post following a clever pass from Olise.

Zetterström continued his individual heroics to deny both Dembélé and Olise in one-on-one situations, but he was powerless to stop France’s third in the 74th minute, as Mbappé ran onto another precise Olise assist to curl home his second of the night.

The brace moves the superstar to six goals for the tournament, tying Lionel Messi at the top of the Golden Boot race, while making him the all-time leading goalscorer in World Cup knockout history with 10 goals.

France now march on to face surprise package Paraguay – who dramatically eliminated Germany on penalties – in Philadelphia on Saturday, July 4.

Rayan Cherki match statistics vs Sweden

10 Minutes2 Touches1 Accurate Pass50% Pass Accuracy1 Pass Into Final Third

Data courtesy of FotMob.