Gary Neville believes England must focus on cutting off the supply line to Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud if they are to stop Kylian Mbappe.
Mbappe scored two sublime goals as France stormed into the World Cup quarter-finals with a comfortable victory over Poland on Sunday afternoon. It takes the Paris Saint-Germain superstar up to five goals for the tournament – eclipsing the four goals he netted in France’s World Cup triumph four years ago.
His Round of 16 goals came after strike partner Giroud became the defending champions' record international goalscorer in the process. It sets up a quarter final clash against England, who recorded a comfortable three-goal victory over Senegal on Sunday evening.
Full focus will now switch to Saturday night’s mouth-watering clash between the World Cup holders and Gareth Southgate’s side, with the Three Lions boss advised by ITV Sport’s panel who covered the Senegal team on how to stop Mbappe – arguably the best player in the world.
Neville spoke of the importance that England right-back Kyle Walker – who will likely match-up against Mbappe – will have on proceedings: “I can’t think of another right-back in the world, I might be a little bit ignorant here, that I’d want to put up against him. That’s not to say Kyle will mark him out of the game. This is a sensational player, the new best player in the world. Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo coming to the end of their careers. Devastating, absolutely devastating. Kyle will go closer to him, more pace than what the Polish defenders had but absolutely incredible those strikes.”
Neville’s fellow pundit Roy Keane concurred that it was “almost impossible to stop” Mbappe but advised England to “look at their own attackers, you double up, you get bodies around him, if you give him that much space you will be in trouble.”
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However, the speak swiftly moved on to France’s plethora of attacking talent beside Mbappe. Despite the absence of Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema through injury, Giroud has been in sparkling form this tournament while Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele have also been in fine form.
Ian Wright added: “Obviously you can’t ignore Mbappe but Griezmann is the one who knits everything together. Dembele as well, you’ve got to stop Griezmann, on him, it’ll be tough to stop someone like Dembele, but this is what it’s about. If you want to win this tournament, you’re going to have to come up against the world champions. We’re going into the Mbappe era but they haven’t kept a clean sheet yet in the competition.”
Neville concluded: “I played against Thierry Henry, the closest player to Mbappe. The one of the things that is really important is to stop the service into Giroud and Griezmann because once they receive the ball Mbappe is going to receive it in far more difficult areas. The lads in the middle, Bellingham, Henderson, Rice, Stones and Maguire, if they can stop the service in that central area there it means Mbappe’s receiving far less dangerous passes.”
