Mbappe continues personal battle with Messi after seeing off Iraq and Philly thunderstorm | OneFootball

On matchday one we had Kylian Mbappe lay down a two-goal gauntlet and Lionel Messi respond with a hat-trick.

On matchday two, with roles reversed, a presumably mortified and suitably embarrassed Mbappe could only manage two goals in a 3-0 win over Iraq after Messi took his tournament total to five earlier in the day against Austria.

Mbappe must for now content himself with pulling level with Miroslav Klose on 16 World Cup goals while remaining two adrift of the new solo leader.

In Mbappe’s defence, he had some other inconveniences to deal with here that Messi did not. Things like a two-hour half-time break due to a thunderstorm-induced weather delay and thus a second half played on a sodden pitch.

We’ve perhaps been lucky in this tournament so far to get as far as this before one of the weather delays we knew would come on the back of last summer’s Club World Cup.

France made a slow start to their opening game against Senegal but there was none of that here. It might have been several hours before the final whistle, but France’s start was fast one that featured an Mbappe goal hammered past Ahmed Basil.

But France took their foot off the gas as the half wore on and, if we’re being picky, are yet to put together a completely convincing 90-minute performance here. And their iffy spell came before the weather provided any excuses or caveats.

It was a sweet strike to beat Iraq’s restored first-choice keeper, but Joe Hart’s assessment of it at half-time was an interesting one. He was right to note that we’ve seen that goal an unlikely number of times in this tournament so far: mid-distance, struck hard, with no spin, at around shoulder height for the keeper and not particularly in the corner of the goal as they get a hand to it but cannot keep it out.

Messi himself scored one against Algeria. Jordan Pickford and Edouard Mendy have both conceded that goal. Hart hinted at the flyaway nature of the ball without declaring it a Full Jabulani, but there is something about that specific type of shot that has now given a range of goalkeepers of assorted calibre significant timing issues. All have seemed to be surprised at how fast and hard the shot has been on them.

Iraq must take credit for France’s inability to ram home the advantage before the break, though. Graham Arnold has put together a well-organised and whole-hearted team who, in another group and on another timeline, would have had every chance of making the last 32.

They can consider themselves unfortunate to have run into Erling Haaland and Mbappe-inspired teams, with the only very slightly easier prospect of Senegal to come. But they have also been their own worst enemies.

Haaland and Mbappe are not players who require assistance of the sort Iraq have provided with two different goalkeepers making similar messes of things when trying to play out from the back.

Ousmane Dembele, a man famously without a tournament goal for France, could have scored himself but squared it to give Mbappe a tap-in. That team-first attitude was duly rewarded minutes later when he finally put that daft stat right by converting on the back of excellent work from Michael Olise.

Olise and Dembele pretty much switched roles today from game one and both looked happier for it. Both men were instantly removed at 3-0 in treacherous conditions, with France able to make the frankly unfair at this point change of replacing those two with a mere Desire Doue and Rayan Cherki.

Mbappe, pointedly, did not receive similar cotton-wool treatment and remained on the pitch chasing more record-breaking antics until the 90th minute before making way having just missed a clear chance for his second hat-trick in his last three World Cup appearances.