PSG star Kylian Mbappe played a starring role last night as France dismantled Gibraltar with a 14-0 win. In the ongoing international break, France faced European minnows in the Euro 2024 qualifiers. In what was an already unbalanced clash, the French side spared no quarters against Gibraltar. However, moments after the match, Mbappe’s past comments have come back to haunt him.
Last night, after Gibraltar’s Ethan Santos scored an own goal, the floodgates opened for France. Nine different French players got on the scoresheet yesterday, with Kylian Mbappe bagging a hat trick. Kingsley Coman and Olivier Giroud also bagged a brace. In the meantime, it was a historic night for Mbappe and Warren Zaire-Emery as well.
In what was France‘s biggest-ever win, Kylian Mbappe surpassed the 300th career goal mark at just 24 years of age. After last night’s performance, Mbappe has now scored 46 goals for France, just 10 goals behind their all-time top scorer Olivier Giroud. It was also his third hat trick for his national team and the 17th hat trick of his career overall.
Warren Zaïre-Emery scores on his debut to become the youngest France scorer in over a century 💫 pic.twitter.com/s9HsPkbhJ3
— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 18, 2023
On the other hand, PSG star Warren Zaire-Emery scored just 16 minutes into his debut for France. The 17-year-old Zaire-Emery also became the youngest-ever player to score a goal for France. He broke the record which was previously held by the Real Madrid midfielder Eduardo Camavinga. Zaire-Emery also broke Camavinga’s record of being the youngest-ever player to play for France.
Kylian Mbappe’s past comments on Argentina
While last night was a historic moment for Kylian Mbappe, he has been subjected to immense backlash from fans on social media platforms. Following France’s dominant display against Gibraltar, Mbappe’s old comments on South American soccer, especially Argentina, have resurfaced again. Back in May last year, Kylian Mbappe undermined South American soccer by stating that its level was not up to the mark with Europe.
— All About Argentina 🛎🇦🇷 (@AlbicelesteTalk) November 18, 2023
He said, via Marca, “In South America, football is not as advanced as in Europe, that’s why when you look at the last World Cups it’s always Europeans who win.” He further stated that the European teams will be better prepared heading into the World Cup. Mbappe’s comments came back to haunt him last year when Argentina defeated France in the World Cup final.
Mbappe was also mocked by the Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez during the post-World Cup 2022 celebrations. It has also been pointed out that while European teams play against minnows like Gibraltar, the South American team regularly plays against world-class oppositions like Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Even playing against the lowest-ranked Bolivia proves to be tough.