Kylian Mbappé Eyes World Cup Glory in New York

Kylian Mbappé is hunting history, but his eyes are fixed on New York, not Lionel Messi.

The France captain struck twice in a ruthless 3-0 dismantling of Sweden in the round of 32 on Tuesday, moving to 18 World Cup goals in 18 games and pulling within one of Messi’s all-time record of 19. He also climbed alongside the Argentine at the top of this tournament’s scoring charts with six.

The numbers are staggering. Mbappé shrugs them off.

“The goal is to go as far as possible – to make it to July 19 and come back here,” he told reporters, anchoring every personal milestone to that final date in New York. The Golden Boot is a by-product. The trophy is the obsession.

He knows the man he is chasing will not stand still.

“I’m also convinced that Leo is going to score more goals, so I don’t focus too much on that,” he said. “I’m more focused on the opponents we might face and how close we’re getting to our goal: the final.”

Messi’s Argentina meet Cape Verde in the last 32 on Friday. France’s path looks trickier, and immediately more awkward: Paraguay in Philadelphia, with either co-hosts Canada or a steely Morocco waiting in the quarter-finals.

France brace for Paraguay’s low block

Paraguay have already ripped up one European script. They dragged four-time world champions Germany into a trench war on Monday and then kicked them out of the tournament on penalties, built on an ultra-defensive game plan that suffocated space and risk.

No one expects them to suddenly open up against Mbappé and company.

Les Bleus, Mbappé insisted, will treat the test with the seriousness it demands.

“I think we’ll keep working between now and the Paraguay match to see what we can improve, because there are still some sequences that aren’t quite clear enough, there’s room for improvement,” he said. The performance against Sweden was slick, but not spotless.

What France do have is an attack that can flip any match in a heartbeat.

“I think it’s positive overall, and our ability to score goals means we always have the chance to take the lead in matches.”

On Tuesday night, that cutting edge came wrapped in emotion. After one of Mbappé’s goals, the French players sprinted to the touchline to embrace Didier Deschamps, their coach still grieving the death of his mother this month.

“I think that reflects the spirit of this group – it’s part of our DNA. We are all together,” Mbappé told beIN Sports. “We know the coach has been through a difficult experience; unfortunately, everyone goes through that at some point and it’s very hard.”

France look like a team playing for something – and someone – beyond themselves.

Belgium’s golden generation gets one more shot

Elsewhere, Belgium have already taken a small but significant step forward. Top of Group G after a 5-1 thrashing of New Zealand, they have erased the bitter memory of their group-stage exit in Qatar four years ago.

After the high of a historic third-place finish at Russia 2018, that 2022 collapse felt like the end of something. This summer, under Rudi Garcia, the brief is clear: restore credibility, then push deeper.

“We wanted to finish first in the group stage and we succeeded,” Garcia said in French. Belgium did it with one win and two draws, not spectacular but efficient enough to meet the first target. “Now it is time for the knockout phase. Senegal is a big team. But, you have to beat them, too, if you want to go far in a World Cup.”

Senegal await in the round of 32 on Wednesday, a side that finished third in a rugged Group I but emerged with three points and a plus-2 goal difference from clashes with France and Erling Haaland’s Norway. Their ceiling remains unknown.

“We know it will be a tough match,” Romelu Lukaku said in French. “Senegal has a lot of top-level players, and the coach is, too. I think it’s 50-50. We really shouldn’t underestimate them.”

Events elsewhere underlined that point. Germany’s exit to Paraguay on penalties and Morocco’s elimination of the Netherlands on Monday have reset the tone of this knockout phase. Reputation counts for less than razor-sharp focus.

“It doesn’t matter who the favorite is,” Belgium forward Charles De Ketelaere said. “We have confidence and need to be sharp. Yesterday showed that it doesn’t matter if you are the favorite.”

Belgium will lean again on Thibaut Courtois, who has conceded just two goals in three games, and on the last embers of their golden generation: Kevin De Bruyne, Lukaku, the core that once promised a title and now fights to avoid a quiet fade.

There is a minor boost at the back. Center back Zeno Debast, yet to play this World Cup due to a left leg injury, has rejoined training.

“Zeno Debast is with the group, but tomorrow is still too soon,” Garcia said. “He is making progress, though. He still needs time to get fully fit, as was anticipated. I am very satisfied with the defenders we have already called upon.”

Mane, Diaw and Senegal’s puncher’s chance

Senegal arrive in Seattle with their own sense of opportunity. They demolished Iraq 5-0 in their last outing, Sadio Mané leading an attack that finally clicked into gear.

The problem lies at the other end.

First-choice goalkeeper Édouard Mendy, injured in a 3-2 defeat to Norway in the group stage, will not be available, coach Pape Thiaw confirmed. Mory Diaw, who kept a clean sheet against Iraq, is set to continue.

“Mory had a great performance,” Thiaw said in French. “He kept a clean sheet and I think (as) the goalkeeper tomorrow, we hope that we’ll also come up with a clean sheet.”

Thiaw has watched the same shocks as everyone else. He sees a door open.

“It’s not because you finished top of your group that you’re not going to be knocked out in the next round,” he said. “That’s exactly what happened with the Netherlands. It’s another tournament starting. We are looking for the win tomorrow so that we can continue our journey.”

For Belgium’s veterans, the stakes are brutally clear. Fail here, and the golden generation’s legacy shrinks again.

England walk the tightrope in Atlanta

England step into this World Cup’s minefield on Wednesday, chasing a place in the last 16 and trying to ignore the wreckage of European giants around them.

Germany are gone. The Netherlands are gone. Both fell on penalties in the round of 32, both ambushed by opponents who refused to be overawed.

The Three Lions meet the Democratic Republic of Congo in Atlanta, knowing the pattern is set: big name, underdog, thin margins.

“I feel it is a privilege to be in these situations. I think we can just accept it, we are the favorites (against DR Congo),” coach Thomas Tuchel said on Tuesday. The admission came with a warning. “The games so far in round of 32 speak a very clear language. It’s narrow, narrow margins.”

England will lean heavily on Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane, their world-class axis through midfield and attack. At the back, they must cope without Reece James, ruled out through injury.

DR Congo, though, will not be short of familiarity. Their 26-man squad is a tapestry of the diaspora: 20 players born outside the country, many in France, several with deep knowledge of the English game.

Yoane Wissa, a constant threat in the Premier League, knows these defenders. Aaron Wan-Bissaka, born in London and once an England Under-21 international, lines up in the opposite dressing room now. Axel Tuanzebe, another former England youth representative, adds to the subplots.

“Our World Cup is already a success relative to our goals,” DR Congo coach Sébastien Desabre said. “The pressure is on the England team.”

That pressure is historical as much as immediate. England’s 60-year wait for a major trophy sits over every knockout tie like a storm cloud. Another upset, another early exit, and the narrative writes itself.

USA on the brink of a landmark night

Across the country, in the San Francisco Bay Area, the USA face Bosnia-Herzegovina in what their players know could become a defining night for football in America.

The sport has been building quietly, then loudly, across the States. This is different. Primetime, knockout jeopardy, a projected audience of up to 30 million viewers, and the chance to claim the nation’s first World Cup knockout win in almost 25 years.

“Everyone knows in the back of our minds what this could do for this country,” midfielder Gio Reyna said. The players feel the stakes beyond the pitch. “We feel the country rallying around us. We see the momentum it’s bringing to the sport in this country, just through the group stage. But we also understand if we make a nice run in this tournament, what it could really do for the sport.”

Christian Pulisic leads a generation that has grown up with the Champions League as a weekly habit, not a distant spectacle. Now they carry the weight of a domestic audience that has rarely been this engaged, this expectant.

Win, and the sport’s trajectory in the US might jolt forward again. Lose, and it becomes another lesson in how hard it is to turn promise into power on the world stage.

Haaland, Norway and a new frontier

While the heavyweights wrestle with expectation, others are quietly making history of their own.

Erling Haaland finally dragged Norway into the last 16 for the first time, poking home the decisive goal in a 2-1 win over Ivory Coast. One swing of that left boot, one more step for a nation that has waited decades to see its brightest star carry it into the knockout rounds.

The bracket is tightening now. Mbappé chases Messi and a final in New York. Belgium’s old guard fight the clock. England tread carefully on a pitch littered with fallen favourites. The USA lean into a night that could redefine a sport.

The World Cup has reached the stage where every game writes a line in someone’s history. Who dares to seize it?