Mbappe says he will have to do ‘even more’ to keep up with Messi at World Cup | OneFootball

Kylian Mbappe insists he is not focused on what Lionel Messi is doing at the World Cup.

The France captain scored twice to take his goal tally to four for the tournament against Iraq, sitting one behind Messi, who has scored five times at this tournament.

Mbappe’s brace in France’s win, which saw them progress to the knockout stages, also took him to 16 goals overall at World Cups, tying Miroslav Klose’s total.

Messi had, however, broken the all-time scoring record at World Cups earlier in the day with his double against Austria, and sits on 18.

“No, as I said yesterday, Leo always scores,” Mbappe said when asked about the competition between the two former PSG team-mates, “He has always scored, he is scoring, and he will always score.

“If I want to keep up with what Leo is doing, I’ll have to do even more. So no, I don’t pay any attention to what he’s doing. I’m only thinking about helping my team.

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“Of course, by helping my team, I score goals, and when you score goals, naturally, you move closer to that kind of level. But as I said, we have a long, difficult road ahead of us and we’re going to do everything we can to come out on top.”

“I’ve always scored goals in the World Cup, so it’s not something I feel I need to worry about. But as I said, the priority for us is to arrive confident in our strengths as a team because we know that the further we go in the competition, the tougher the tests will be and to win a World Cup, you have to beat everyone, so it’s going to be very difficult.”