At the Dutch football mecca, Johan Cruyff Arena, Kylian Mbappe danced with outstanding class in front of the home players. If only looking at the 1-2 result, many people might think that the Netherlands has a chance to win points. But not! That was a match in which France was at a much higher level than the home team, suffering serious personnel losses (missing Cody Gakpo, Memphi Depay, Frenkie de Jong, Klaassen, De Ligt, Jurrien Timber, Berghuis, Cillessen, Koopmeiners ).

 

Mbappe performed magical plays, completely different from the series of the last 4 matches without scoring for PSG, something that has not happened in the past two years. He had his second double this year for “Les Bleus”, and both were done in matches against the Netherlands. This is thanks to the support Kylian received from his teammates. Those are Kingsley Coman on the wing, Antoine Griezmann and Rabiot in the middle, brothers Lucas and Theo Hernandez in defense. Besides that is the Tchouameni power. The legs and hearts of the Dutch host players were very heavy before the grace and flexibility of their opponents. The goal only came when Didier Deschamps gave the team a rest.

 

The jubilant performance in Amsterdam was France’s 6th consecutive victory in EURO 2024 qualifying, with 13 goals. Dutch rookie Quilindschy Hartman became the first person to score against goalkeeper Mike Maignan on the journey to Germany. A very comprehensive group. France, Portugal and Belgium are the first three teams to officially have tickets to the EURO 2024 finals.

 

At Johan Cruyff Stadium, Mbappe’s two goals were dedicated to his friend who passed away in the middle of last week, in Bondy. Before that, he was allowed to leave the Clairefontaine center to visit his friend’s family. At the age of 24 years and 297 days, Mbappe showed his true captain’s role when he scored his 41st and 42nd goals for France, respectively, in the 72nd international match of his career. He surpassed legendary Michel Platini to rank fourth on the list of all-time top scorers for France, behind only Olivier Giroud (54), Thierry Henry (51) and Griezmann (44).

No player has surpassed the mark of 40 goals, 24 assists and 72 matches for France before his 25th birthday. Mbappe is the first case. Giroud played match 72 at the age of 31 and achieved 31 goals. Henry is 28 years old, scored 29 goals and 25 assists. Only Karim Benzema is the youngest, reaching 72 matches at the age of 26 years and 8 months, but has only scored 23 goals and 16 assists. Even the great Zinedine Zidane is 29 years old, scoring 18 goals and providing 19 assists at the same milestone.

 

With this momentum, Mbappe has many chances to surpass goalkeeper Hugo Lloris’ record of 145 caps for France. However, that’s a story from a few years later. In the immediate future, with a performance of 0.58 goals/match, the second highest among players with 30 goals or more – only behind Just Fontaine, with 1.43 goals/match – the 105th captain in French history is has a great chance to surpass Giroud in the near future. He can even do this right at the upcoming EURO.