On Saturday evening, England will come up against their toughest test of the World Cup so far. In the quarter-final, they will face an opponent who will test them like no other. Peruse any number of sports news services and you won’t be able to get the name out of your head. England have been drawn in the last eight of the 2022 World Cup against… Kylian Mbappe.
At least that’s how the English media seems to be framing the collision. The public too, if you traverse the swirling cycle of comments on social media. Stop Mbappe and you stop France. That’s right, France. Because there is actually an entire national football team England will have to contend with on Saturday night. Despite what you may read, this isn’t going to be eleven against one.
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There is nothing wrong with constructing a bespoke plan, or even several, to counterbalance the Paris Saint-Germain forward. If he isn’t already the world’s greatest player, Mbappe seems certain to try that crown on for size soon. He has also had this curious tournament on strings so far, recording five goals and two assists. Mbappe is undoubtedly the greatest threat Les Bleus have to offer. But to think of him as the only threat is the height of English arrogance.
We do this a lot as a nation. Like many previous tournaments, we entered the 2022 World Cup at a low ebb. Fans were calling for manager Gareth Southgate’s head. Some reasons were tangible, like the fact England hadn’t won in their last six games heading into Qatar. Others less so, like wanting the only manager to take us to a major final since 1966 to lose his job because he didn’t pick the same eleven Gary in Bolton would have chosen. Either way, the mood was rock bottom for the Three Lions when the World Cup kicked off.
But like we always do, we started to believe. A 6-2 thumping of Iran helped start a quiet chorus of Baddiel & Skinner’s timeless “It’s coming home!” refrain. But it started sarcastically, it always does. A drab 0-0 draw with USA quietened the terrace tune. A 3-0 win over old rivals Wales saw the song remain the same, but this time with a little less irony. By the time England beat Senegal 3-0, the mighty Lions of Teranga no less, an entire nation had convinced itself that Jules Rimet was still gleaming.
It is this move through ironic bolshiness to sincere belief that has fueled the “just mark Mbappe” narrative. England as a nation has convinced itself that shackling one international level footballer will render ten more utterly helpless against the mighty Three Lions. It just isn’t true when you actually look at the rest of France’s squad.
For a start, this team literally won the last World Cup. Sure, Paul Pogba and N’golo Kante aren’t here this time, while 2018 absentee Karim Benzema is also not in Qatar. But Didier Deschamps’ team is hardly running on fumes. So what does that leave them with?
Just their newly-minted all-time top goalscorer, Olivier Giroud. Oh, and the prodigiously talented winger Ousmane Dembele, who has two assists at these finals. How about Antoine Griezmann, who is showing his best form in years? Adrien Rabiot who is firmly in the feast phase of his undulating, feast-or-famine consistency? Aurelien Tchouameni, a 22-year-old midfielder captivating enough that Real Madrid spent €80 million on him last summer? Raphael Varane, who has four Champions Leagues and the quality to make a team as rickety as Manchester United defend properly? You know, for a one-man team they sure do have a lot of men.
This France team is not as good as the one that won the World Cup in 2018. But to dismiss it as Mbappe and ten of his mates is the sort of reductiveness that could hurt England. The quality runs deep in this latest vintage. Stopping the PSG superstar will certainly be the most important task for England in this quarter final. But it would be foolish to consider it the only task.
