The Senegal national football team began the match with a greater attacking threat and created the clearer chances in the first half, with France struggling to establish rhythm.

The France national football team offered little attacking presence before the interval, recording only a handful of touches inside the opposition penalty area and failing to properly involve their attacking line.

Nicolas Jackson came closest to breaking the deadlock when his driven effort struck the base of the post before ricocheting off the goalkeeper and drifting narrowly wide.

Just before half-time, Ismaila Sarr also missed a major opportunity, failing to guide a close-range finish on target after linking up with a delivery from Sadio Mane.

France respond after the interval

France returned from the break with noticeably more intensity, immediately pushing forward and creating early chances.

Desire Doue forced an early effort wide at the start of the second half, while both Michael Olise and Kylian Mbappé were later denied in one-on-one situations by the goalkeeper.

Senegal briefly thought they had opened the scoring through Jackson again, but the effort was ruled out for offside shortly after France began to assert themselves.

Mbappé breaks resistance and rewrites history

Kylian Mbappé eventually broke Senegal’s defensive resistance with a low finish in the second half, before later adding a spectacular long-range strike deep into added time to seal the result.

His second goal moved him to 58 international goals, placing him one ahead of former record holder Olivier Giroud as France’s leading scorer.

The result also added to his World Cup tally, bringing him level with former Germany striker Gerd Muller on 14 tournament goals.

Decisive moments and controversial decisions

Earlier in the half, France were involved in a disputed incident when contact on Mbappe inside the box led to a VAR review.

The referee initially awarded a corner, despite expectations of a penalty, before ultimately ruling that Mbappe had initiated the contact following review.

Senegal continued to threaten during this phase, but France capitalised on their momentum shift.

Bradley Barcola added a second goal for France to extend their advantage before Senegal responded through a powerful strike from 18-year-old Ibrahim Mbaye, who became the youngest African scorer in World Cup history.

Deschamps praises impact after slow start

Didier Deschamps noted that criticism of Mbappe would persist at times but highlighted his ability to decide matches with key moments rather than constant involvement.

He also emphasized Mbappé’s contribution as captain and his influence on the team’s performance beyond goal scoring.

France’s improvement after a quiet first half ultimately proved decisive as they secured victory in their opening match of the tournament in New Jersey.