← Beyond the Pitch Group I

France

Les Bleus, Mbappé in his Real Madrid pomp, and a 2022 Final that still stings

Group

Region

UEFA

World Cup Appearances

Code

The Story

France arrives in 2026 with the deepest roster on the planet and an open wound that hasn't really healed. The 2022 Final in Lusail is one of the most-watched soccer matches ever played, and it ended with Mbappé scoring a hat-trick in a losing effort and Argentina lifting the trophy on penalties. Four years later, almost the entire French spine is back. So is the manager, Didier Deschamps, who has now coached Les Bleus for fourteen years and has nothing left to prove except this.

The reason France is the betting favorite is simple math. Mbappé is leading La Liga in goals in his first Real Madrid season. Ousmane Dembélé just won the Ballon d'Or off the back of PSG's treble. William Saliba is a top-three center back in the world. Mike Maignan is the goalkeeper. Aurélien Tchouaméni and Eduardo Camavinga are 26 and 23. There is no obvious weakness, only the question of whether Deschamps' famously cautious tactics squeeze the talent or set it loose.

For a country that has been in three of the last seven World Cup finals, the goal is not "competing." It is the trophy. Anything else, in 2026, would be considered a failure.

Week 1 Update: France beat Senegal 3-1, and it looked like the tournament favorite performing exactly as advertised. Mbappé was involved in everything dangerous, the midfield suffocated Senegal's rhythm, and Deschamps' side converted their chances with the clinical efficiency of a team that expects to win. Three points, a clean performance, and a message sent to the rest of Group I: the bracket runs through Les Bleus.

Matchday 2 Update: France dismantled Iraq 3-0, with Mbappé scoring twice (14', 54') to take his tournament tally to four goals, and Dembélé adding a third. A two-hour rain and lightning delay at halftime in Philadelphia couldn't cool Les Bleus off — they came out of the break and immediately killed the match. Six points, knockouts secured, and Deschamps' final tournament as manager is going exactly to plan.

Matchday 3 Update: France beat Norway 4-1 and Dembele scored a hat trick in 25 minutes — the second-fastest in World Cup history, trailing only Austria's Probst in 1954. Goals at 7', 20', and 32', plus Doue added a fourth in stoppage time. France finish with a perfect 9 points, winning Group I without breaking a sweat. Deschamps' farewell is looking less like a tournament and more like a coronation.

Round of 32 (June 30): France 3-0 Sweden, and it was never a contest. Mbappé scored either side of halftime (45', 74') and Barcola added a third in between — clinical, controlled, and over before the hour mark. Gyökeres and Isak, the partnership Europe had been waiting to see, couldn't find a yard of space against the French defensive structure. Les Bleus advance to face Paraguay in the round of 16 in Philadelphia, and Mbappé now has six tournament goals. The Klose record — 16, long considered untouchable — is ten goals away with potentially four matches left to play.

Round of 16 (July 4): Thirty-nine degrees in Philadelphia, and Paraguay made France earn every inch. La Albirroja sat deep and disrupted Les Bleus' rhythm for 69 minutes — until VAR confirmed Désiré Doué had been fouled in the box, Mbappé stepped up, and rolled a cold penalty into the right corner. One goal, clinical and inevitable. It was Mbappé's seventh of the tournament, drawing level with Messi in the golden boot race, and his record-extending 11th strike in World Cup knockout football — the first player to score in the Round of 16 in three consecutive tournaments. France are in the quarterfinals. The opponent is Morocco. The 2022 semifinal rematch, with both teams two wins from where they should have been four years ago.

Quarter-Final (July 9): France 2-0 Morocco, and the 2022 semifinal rematch ended the same way. Bounou denied Mbappé's first-half penalty — low to his left, brilliant, the kind of save that usually changes a match — but on the hour mark Mbappé curled a stunning finish into the far corner from the edge of the box, and that was that. He immediately turned provider: a perfectly weighted through-ball slipped Dembélé in on goal, and Dembélé was ice-cold, firing a composed finish into the bottom corner. Morocco's attack, missing Ismael Saibari, barely threatened. Les Bleus are in the semifinals for the third time in four tournaments, in Dallas on July 14, facing the winner of Spain and Belgium. Mbappé has eight goals in this tournament. Deschamps' farewell is four matches from perfect.

3 Players to Know

Kylian Mbappé

Twenty-seven years old, captain, and the most famous athlete in France by a margin even Zidane would respect. His first season at Real Madrid (2025-26) has been absurd — 23 La Liga goals before April, leading the Pichichi race, La Liga Player of the Month in January. The 2022 Final is still the defining match of his career: a Mbappé hat-trick, three Argentine answers, the trophy lifted by someone else. He has been waiting four years to fix that. Knee scare in late March; back in full training by April 1.

Ousmane Dembélé

The 2025 Ballon d'Or winner — yes, that Dembélé, the one who spent five years at Barcelona being called injury-prone and overrated. PSG's historic treble (Ligue 1, Coupe de France, first-ever Champions League, 5-0 over Inter in the final) ran through him. He's a left-footed right winger who can dribble through three defenders without looking up, and at 28 he's playing the football a lot of scouts said he'd play at 22.

Aurélien Tchouaméni

Twenty-six, Real Madrid's defensive midfielder, the player Deschamps trusts to break up everything in front of the back four. Came up at Bordeaux, transferred to Monaco, then Madrid paid €80 million for him in 2022 — and he's grown into it. Plays like someone older. Wears the No. 8 for France because that's the shirt Vieira wore, and he knows.

The Food

Signature Dish

Steak frites is the easy answer, but the French dish that actually translates to a soccer Sunday is moules-frites — a heaping iron pot of mussels in white wine and shallots, a paper cone of fries on the side, mayonnaise that's better than the French will admit. Or a proper duck confit, the leg crackling on top, the fat doing 80% of the work. End with a cheese plate that doesn't apologize for the smell.

Where to Eat in DFW

Frenchie in Preston Center (8420 Preston Center Plaza) — carrying forward the DNA of the late Bullion, with chef Bruno Davaillon's influence still running through the kitchen. Contemporary French brasserie food that takes the bistro classics seriously. Hours: Mon–Thu 11am–9:30pm, Fri 11am–10:30pm, Sat 9:30am–10:30pm, Sun 9:30am–9pm; open daily. For something more upscale, Georgie (4514 Travis St, where Davaillon leads the kitchen) does the full white-tablecloth French experience. Hours: Mon & Sun dinner 5–9pm, Tue–Thu 5–10pm, Fri–Sat 5–11pm; Sunday brunch 10:30am–3pm. Bullion downtown closed, but Davaillon's cooking lives on at both.

The Music

A soundtrack for the matches, the pregame, and the afterparty.

Fan Culture

French support is stylish in the way you'd expect and louder than you wouldn't. The Marseillaise is the most cinematic anthem in the sport — when the camera pans the squad and Mbappé is mouthing it, you understand what the song is for. In the stands, expect tricolore flags, smoke, "Allez les Bleus" rolling in three syllables, and the occasional flare that French stewards stopped trying to confiscate around 1998. The diaspora support in DFW is enormous and quiet about it — French expats, North and West African families whose teams France's roster also pulls from, the whole banlieue-to-Bondoufle pipeline showing up in one stadium.

Fun Fact

France has reached three of the last seven World Cup finals, winning two of them — and the player who broke their hearts in the third (Messi) is still active. There are 22-year-olds playing professional soccer who have never seen France lose a knockout match they were favored to win.