FOOTBALL - France struck early through Michael Olise and sealed the points with a late Kylian Mbappe breakaway to beat Ukraine 2-0 yesterday and open their World Cup qualifying campaign in style.
Mbappe’s 82nd-minute strike, set up by his Real Madrid teammate Aurelien Tchouameni at the end of a rapid counter attack, lifted the forward to 51 international goals, drawing him level with Thierry Henry in second place on France’s all-time scoring list behind Olivier Giroud (57)..
Olise gave them the lead after 10 minutes, sliding in a Bradley Barcola pass, and only goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin’s sharp reflexes prevented further damage as he denied Olise a second and later blocked Dembele after a delicate Tchouameni chip over the defence.
Italy opened Gennaro Gattuso’s reign with a 5-0 home win over Estonia, wasting chances for almost an hour before exploding in the final stages of the second half to turn dominance into a rout.
The spotlight was on new Italy manager Gattuso, with his side on the back foot in Group I after a 3-0 defeat at Norway in June that cost coach Luciano Spalletti his job.
Italy sit third in their group on six points from three games, with Norway leading on 12 and Israel second with nine, both having played a match more.
Denmark’s hopes of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup suffered an early setback when they were held to a scoreless draw by Scotland in their Group C match.
Slovenia substitute Zan Vipotnik struck a 90th-minute equaliser to give his side a 2-2 draw at home to Sweden in their opening Group B that the visitors were controlling until a terrible blunder by goalkeeper Robin Olsen.
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