France dominate Sweden with a 3-0 victory
Didier Deschamps saw the clock tick towards 85 minutes, saw the scoreboard glare 3-0, and decided the Aztecs had been appeased. Kylian Mbappé and Michael Olise were summoned to the touchline, their work done. As Mbappé trotted off, Deschamps broke into a grin, stretched out his arms and bowed, palms open, in a gesture that said what the stadium already knew: this was a performance to be saluted.
France had not just beaten Sweden. They had shredded them. Three-nil felt charitable. Six would have been closer to the truth.
France unleash the full storm
From the opening exchanges, Sweden looked as if they had stepped into a wind tunnel. The French front line moved at a different speed, a different temperature. Mbappé scored twice, Barcola added another, and Olise threaded the evening together with two assists. Both Mbappé and Olise rattled the post, Olise with an outrageous overhead kick that missed immortality by inches.
Sweden’s manager Graham Potter admitted his team could have been “perfect” and still fallen short. It didn’t sound like an excuse. It sounded like a diagnosis. This was France in full, terrifying flow, the kind of night that reshapes a tournament.
The comparisons now write themselves. Are we watching a side on the path of 1970 Brazil, sweeping all before them to lift the World Cup? Or are these the new 1982 Brazil, spellbinding for weeks only to be ambushed at the last?
For now, the football is doing the talking. Mbappé, with that beeline sprint to embrace Deschamps after his first goal, added a human seam to the spectacle. The coach had flown home last week to attend his mother’s funeral. His captain brought the moment back to him, in front of the world, with a goal and a hug that said everything.
France 3, Sweden 0. On the balance of chances, Sweden got away lightly.
Mexico wake the Azteca
The night belonged to more than one rising force. In Mexico City, a different kind of storm delayed kick-off. Threatening electrical weather pushed Mexico’s late-night tie with Ecuador back by an hour, the crowd at the Azteca forced to wait.
When the whistle finally went, Ecuador found the real shock was not in the sky but in the stands.
The Azteca roared like it was 1986 again. Mexico, driven by the extreme intensity around them and lit up by teenage breakout star Gilberto Mora, tore into Ecuador. Julián Quiñones struck on 22 minutes, Raúl Jiménez added a second nine minutes later, and Mexico never loosened their grip.
By the interval, the game was effectively done. By full-time, a statistic lingered: Mexico had just won a World Cup knockout match for the first time since they last hosted the tournament 40 years ago.
England, should they navigate DR Congo later today, will walk into that same stadium, that same altitude, that same noise. They have been warned.
Haaland, history and a Viking boat
Earlier, in a tie that swung and lurched and refused to settle, Norway and Ivory Coast traded blows before Erling Haaland did what Erling Haaland does.
Antonio Nusa had given Norway the lead on 39 minutes, only for Amad Diallo to produce one of the day’s standout moments. Picking up the ball, Diallo slalomed through Norwegian challenges and finished with the kind of icy precision that makes defenders question their profession. It was a goal worthy of more than a fleeting equaliser.
But Norway kept coming. With four minutes of normal time left, substitute Oscar Bobb sliced the Ivorian back line open with an incisive pass, and Haaland pounced on the chance to settle a seesawing contest.
Norway celebrated in that now familiar, Viking-rowboat routine, chests heaving, arms rowing in unison. It was more than theatre. It was a reminder of a quietly remarkable record.
Next up: Brazil in the last 16. And here’s the twist. Norway remain the only team to have faced Brazil and never lost. Four games, two wins, two draws. The record stands, the mythology grows, and now they must defend it on the biggest stage of all.
The day’s quirks and questions
From a day rich in attacking flair, Diallo’s goal against Norway edged out the rest as the pick of the bunch: a slaloming run, a composed finish, and a brief flicker of hope for Ivory Coast.
There was levity too. Before Bobb threaded the pass that set up Haaland’s winner, he triggered a different kind of memory in the commentary box. Danny Murphy, on BBC duty, drifted into an aside. He once had a cat called Bob, he explained, who jumped into the back of a Royal Mail van and was never seen again. “Sad really. Anyway.” The Irish Times later reported that Postman Pat has been deemed too triggering for the Murphy household ever since.
And as for the World Cup’s eternal pub-quiz thread: who has more goals at this tournament down the years, players called Müller or players called Ronaldo? The answer, for now, lies tucked away beneath the day’s results, another little riddle in a tournament full of omens.
A day of omens
By the close, the pattern of the day felt clear. France sent a chill through the teams resting in their hotels. Mexico reawakened the ghosts and glories of the Azteca. Norway marched on with a Viking beat and a Brazilian date circled in red.
Results, stripped back, told only part of the story:
Ivory Coast 1 (Diallo 74) Norway 2 (Nusa 39, Haaland 86)
France 3 (Mbappé 45, 74, Barcola 53) Sweden 0
Mexico 2 (Quinones 22, Jimenez 31) Ecuador 0
Elsewhere, the sporting world turned. Louth stepped into an All-Ireland semi-final for the first time since 1957, earning the kind of respect that means you’re no longer called an underdog. Rugby’s new Nations Championship loomed into view, Ireland preparing to open against Australia with a sense that the next two years start here.
But the World Cup, as it tends to, stole the eye.
England against DR Congo, Belgium against Senegal, USA against Bosnia and Herzegovina – all still to come. All now cast in a slightly different light by what France, Mexico and Norway just laid down.
On a day of menacing augurs, one question lingers for the rest of the field: are they watching the storm form, or the standard being set?
