FIFA World Cup 2022: France start title defense with a 4-1 win against Australia
France started the defense in the World Cup with a victory but still had to overcome Australia after falling behind
France 4-1 Australia: Mbappe, Giroud shine as Les Bleus get off to winning start in World Cup defenceThe French team was unfortunately bogged down by injuries in the lead-up to the tournament.
Craig Goodwin opened the scoring for Australia in the first ten minutes.
Adrien Rabiot equalized before midfielder Olivier Giroud for his 50th goal for France.
Kylian Mbappe headed in a third goal before Olivier Giroud scored again to equal Thierry Henry as France's record goalscorer.
Despite missing Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kante, Presnel Kimpembe, Christopher Nkunku, and Paul Pogba through injury, and Raphael Varane only able to sit on the bench, the French showed they are ready for the tournament.
Argentina had previously suffered one of the biggest World Cup shocks of all time with its defeat to Saudi Arabia. France coach Didier Deschamps will be glad his team did not suffer the same fate after Australia took a surprise lead.
Lucas Hernandez added another name to France's injury list when he walked off the pitch with a limp and was replaced by his younger brother Theo Hernandez after apparently twisting his knee in preparation.
Mitch Duke almost surprised France with a brilliant second goal when he collected the ball after a back pass from Theo Hernandez and shot inches past the goal from outside the box.
Shortly afterwards, the defending champions equalised when Rabiot's powerful header from Theo Hernandez's cross was unstoppable for Mat Ryan.
Just five minutes later, Rabiot was involved in the opening goal for France. Nathaniel Atkinson was caught in possession trying to play off Kylian Mbappe and played in Rabiot, whose cross was headed in by Giroud.
The AC Milan striker will be relieved to score in the opening game after going the entire tournament without scoring four years ago.
Kylian Mbappe's shot from close range failed to hit the crossbar, and the Socceroos almost equalised shortly after when Jackson Irvine headed against the post.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">🥇 Thierry Henry - 51 goals<br>🥇 𝗢𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗥 𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗗 - 51 goals<br><br>Olivier Giroud is officially joint all-time top goalscorer for France 🇫🇷👑<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FIFAWorldCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FIFAWorldCup</a> <a href="https://t.co/WioSobI6yt">pic.twitter.com/WioSobI6yt</a></p>— Football Daily (@footballdaily) <a href="https://twitter.com/footballdaily/status/1595154706237599744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 22, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Giroud missed with an acrobatic volley, Kylian Mbappe was prevented from scoring by a Kyle Rowles foul, and Griezmann's effort was cleared off the line as France dominated after the break.
However, Australia's fightback ended in 68 minutes when Kylian Mbappe equalised with a fine header from Ousmane Dembele's cross.
Giroud (36) matched Henry, this time nodding in from Kylian Mbappe's cross before the former Arsenal and Chelsea striker was substituted just before the end as France pushed the ball over the line.