French striker Kylian Mbappe scored the only goal in his country’s Nations League victory against Sweden on Saturday. His 41st minute strike was the only difference as the World Champions defeated Sweden 1-0 at the Friends Arena.
The 21-year-old cut in from the left and found the gap between Sweden goalkeeper Robin Olsen and the post with a left-footed shot to register the 14th goal for his country.
“It was a tough match and we fought hard. It wasn’t easy, it could be better in the future,” Mbappe said, according to Xinhua news agency. “The most important thing is the result.”
Meanwhile, Mbappe had to be taken off in the 77th minute after he suffered an injury on his foot. It was his second blow in little over a month after he had hurt his ankle in August while playing for PSG in the Super Cup final. “It hurts a bit. I took a knock, but it will get better and better so it’s fine,” Mbappe told M6.
“We will recover well to be better against Croatia. We are going to work. It’s the coach who will decide if I play,” added the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) player.
In other matches of the top-tier League A, Cristiano Ronaldo-less Portugal crushed 2018 World Cup finalist Croatia 4-1 in a Group 3 match. Portugal, who missed their superstar player Ronaldo due to a toe infection, saw goals from Joao Cancelo, Diogo Jota, Joao Felix and Andre Silva.
Top-ranked Belgium secured a 2-0 win against Denmark in Group 2. Dries Mertens and Jason Denayer scored the goals. In another match of the same group, England were made to work hard by Iceland before Thomas Southgate’s men managed to score a late penalty to win 1-0.
Raheem Sterling successfully converted the injury-time spot-kick from the 12 yards spot after both the team were reduced to 10 men earlier.