I watched Scotland’s defeat by Brazil on Wednesday evening in a bar in rural New Hampshire. One of the other customers saw me staring up at the screen and wanted to know all about the France-Norway game at Boston Stadium, home of his beloved New England Patriots, tonight.
‘Who’s that amazing guy that plays for France?’ he asked, apologising for his lack of knowledge. I told him that could mean one of quite a few players but that he was probably thinking of Kylian Mbappe. ‘That’s the one,’ he said. ‘He’s the boss hog.’
It is the first time I have heard Mbappe called that but maybe it’s not the worst description. I was in Philadelphia on Monday evening to see France dismantle Iraq and Mbappe was so sharp and eager, so demanding and ambitious that his performance was breathtaking.
And tonight, for the first time at this World Cup, one of the great Alphas of the tournament will come up against another one: Mbappe’s is likely to line up against Erling Haaland in a struggle between two of the world’s great goalscorers.
Mbappe is only 27 but he is already a veteran of two World Cup finals. He won the first and scored a hat-trick in the second. The four goals he has scored already in this tournament have taken him to 16 in World Cups in 16 games. Only Lionel Messi — who has 18 — has scored more.
Haaland is playing in his first World Cup but he is established in club football as a goalscoring machine. He has 112 goals in 132 Premier League appearances for Manchester City and, to no one’s great surprise, has hit the ground running in his tournament debut here.
Kylian Mbappe could line up against Erling Haaland tonight in a battle of two of the world’s great goalscorers
Mbappe’s four goals at this tournament have taken him to 16 in total at the World Cup, with only Lionel Messi having scored more
Haaland is level with Mbappe in the golden boot race after scoring twice in both his of Norway’s matches at his first World Cup
He has scored in every competitive game he has played for Norway going back to October 2024, which makes 24 goals in 12 competitive games. He scored twice in Norway’s first game of the tournament against Iraq and twice more against Senegal.
Which means that Mbappe and Haaland are tied on four goals each, one behind Messi, in a race for the Golden Boot that is shaping up to be the most compelling for decades. Vinicius Junior, Harry Kane and Cristiano Ronaldo are massing behind them.
Should both Mbappe and Haaland start in a game that pits two sides who have already qualified for the last 32 against each other, it will provide an enthralling clash of styles and attributes.
There is a suggestion that Norway will rotate heavily tonight but that Haaland will start the game if he wishes to. The most likely scenario is thought to be that he will play for an hour or so and then be substituted. The same may apply to Mbappe.
Mbappe was like quicksilver against Iraq. After a difficult, uneven season with Real Madrid, this is the hungriest and the best he has looked for some time. His movement was a blur and his hunger for goals was insatiable.
His first goal that night was a stunning hit from outside the box that went through a defender’s legs and rocketed past the keeper. His second was a tap-in after an unselfish lay-back from Ousmane Dembele.
Mbappe can score from anywhere and he can create goals from nothing with his frightening pace and mesmeric control.
He also has a quite brilliant supporting cast. When the Ballon d’Or winner is teeing up tap-ins for you, you know the cards are stacked in your favour.
Mbappe has looked the hungriest and best he has for some time in France’s opening matches
The France captain is backed by a quite brilliant supporting cast that includes Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele
Haaland is a better finisher than Mbappe but does not possess the all-round game of the Frenchman
Haaland is more reliant on support, but does have the supreme creative talent of Martin Odegaard to help him
Haaland does not have the same level of support, although in Arsenal’s skipper, Martin Odegaard, he does have a sublime creative talent to work with who appears to be relishing the tournament after a long, hard Premier League title race against Haaland’s City.
Haaland is also more reliant on support. He is a goal-poacher supreme, one of the most clinical and ruthless finishers that English football has seen but the vast majority of his goals are from close range. He is a better finisher than Mbappe but he does not have the all-round game the France captain possesses.
Both represent their team’s best chance of winning tonight and both will be desperate to play. Topping Group I appears to offer a gentler route through the first couple of knockout rounds than qualifying as runner-up.
The winner could face a route of Sweden in the last 32, Germany in the last 16, the Netherlands in the quarter-finals, Spain in the semis and then the final. The runner-up could face Ivory Coast, Brazil, England, Argentina and then the final.
For those trying to predict the eventual winner of the Golden Boot, the strength of the respective sides offers the best clue. Coming into the tournament, France and Spain were generally regarded as the two strongest sides. As the tournament nears the end of the group stage, that perspective has not changed.
If France stay in the competition longer than Norway, as expected, then Mbappe has a better chance than Haaland of adding another Golden Boot to the one he won at Qatar 2022. It seems likely that the tally of eight goals, which he set there, will be surpassed this time.
‘I would have to side with Mbappe,’ Tony Cascarino, the former Republic of Ireland striker, wrote recently, ‘mainly because I fancy France’s chances to reach the final more than Argentina’s.
‘But also because Mbappe has proved that he can do it on the biggest stage, including a hat-trick in the final in Qatar four years ago. Regardless of who wins it, I would be shocked if the final tally does not reach eight goals,.’
Is Just Fontaine’s all-time record at a single tournament of 13, set in 1958, reachable? It is as hard to see that happening as it is to imagine that anyone will ever beat Dixie Dean’s record of 60 goals in an English top-flight season. Even Haaland’s best shot fell short at 36.
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