Current world champions, France debuted in the 2022 Cup showing the strength of their generation. Even with several casualties in the squad due to injury, including the Golden Ball Benzema, the French team began the search for the third championship with a gala performance in the 4-1 defeat of Australia, assuming the isolated leadership of Group D. Giroud scored two goals, Mbappé and Rabiot scored the others, and Goodwin scored the Australian goal, early in the game.

France put an end to an uncomfortable writing of world champions: in the last three Cups, the title defenders stumbled in their debut. Now, Les Bleus have another curse to try to end: in four of the five Cups of this century (with the exception of Brazil in 2006), the team that won the previous World Cup stopped in the group stage. With this Tuesday’s performance, France took a big step to scare away that ghost too. Didier Deschamps’ team returns to the field on Saturday, against Denmark, and then faces Tunisia, on the 30th.

Marked in 2018 for being champion without scoring at the World Cup in Russia, Olivier Giroud this time didn’t have to wait long to show his goalscoring flair. And he left the field with his name in the history of the selection: with the two goals scored on Tuesday, he equaled Thierry Henry as France’s top scorer, both with 51 goals. In the end, he received FIFA’s best player of the match award.