Kylian Mbappe put the furore over his move to Real Madrid to one side as France s fantastic leader dominated in Wednesday s 3-0 friendly victory over Luxembourg.
Didier Deschamps lauded the leadership qualities of star striker Mbappe, who celebrated confirmation of his switch to the Spanish capital with a goal and two assists at Stade Saint-Symphorien in Metz.
Mbappe dazzled down the left flank to find space and tee up Randal Kolo Muani s first-half opener before paving the way for Jonathan Clauss finish after the break.
The France forward was not done there, however, rounding off a fine individual performance with a late goal after an assist from former Paris Saint-Germain team-mate Bradley Barcola.
Just 12 days before Les Bleus Euro 2024 opener against Austria, France head coach Deschamps was delighted with Mbappe s resounding international return.
Deschamps told French channel TF1: He s a fantastic leader. His head and body weren t used to playing so little. He lacked a bit of juice.
But he got it in his head that he was going to do everything to make up for his PSG frustration. It was a good example during the week.
1er match et 1ère passe décisive en Bleu pour Bradley Barcola !
3-0 | |
— Equipe de France (@equipedefrance)
France have a final warm-up friendly to come against Canada on Sunday before heading to the Euros, with Netherlands and Poland also in their challenging group.
Deschamps says this dominance over Luxembourg was a positive sign, though there remains room for improvement.
It s a good rehearsal for the work we ve done, he added.
We re not going to get excited but there are some interesting things. I m going to correct some positioning.
But in the offensive animation, we had a lot of variety.
Olivier Giroud also became France s oldest player in history in the victory, coming on as a second-half substitute aged 37 years and 249 days.
