In the 96-year history of the World Cup, only two teams have made it to three consecutive Finals, but that exclusive club could have a new member by the end of the summer, given how France is currently motoring.
Didier Deschamps’ side, champions in 2018 and finalists in 2022, had been installed as pre-tournament favorites prior to the start of the action in North America – and it has been showing exactly why across its first four games, which featured four lethal attacking displays.
Tuesday’s evisceration of an admittedly limited Sweden outfit at MetLife Stadium further underscored France’s title-winning capabilities, demonstrating the devastating attacking weaponry at Deschamps’ disposal.
No team at the World Cup boasts an attack remotely close to the French trio of Kylian Mbappé, Michael Olise, and Ousmane Dembélé. In reality, no World Cup team has started as potent an attack since Brazil started its famed “Triple R” forward line of Ronaldo, Rivaldo, and Ronaldinho en route to winning the tournament in 2002.
Mbappé, already one of the best players in the world, is in a league of his own at World Cups. The 27-year-old has now scored 18 goals in two-and-a-half tournaments since making his World Cup debut as a fleet-footed teenager at Russia 2018.
His scintillating brace against Sweden in New Jersey on Tuesday moves him to six goals at the 2026 World Cup, leaving him level with Lionel Messi in the race for the Golden Boot. He is also just one goal behind Messi in the all-time World Cup goalscorer standings on 18 goals, despite playing in three fewer tournaments than the Argentinian maestro.
Mbappé’s record of seven World Cup braces is also a tournament record.
The Real Madrid forward finished as top scorer in 2022, scoring eight times as France lost to Argentina on penalties in the final. And he did so without Olise in the French squad.
Olise, despite not scoring at the tournament so far, has been a revelation, leading the tournament in assists with five so far.
He provided two glorious assists in Tuesday’s 3-0 win over Sweden, teeing up Bradley Barcola for France’s second by sliding a pass through the legs of Gustaf Lagerbielke and then producing a glorious reverse pass for Mbappé’s second, carving the Swedish defense apart like a hot knife through butter.
Olise has assisted three of Mbappé’s six goals so far and looks capable of unlocking any defense he comes up against.
Dembélé, unlike Olise, did feature in Qatar four years ago, but his level has increased so exponentially since then that he might as well be a new player. Since joining PSG in 2023, Dembélé has been a crucial part of two Champions League-winning sides and won the 2025 Ballon d’Or.
He has shown no signs of slowing down at this World Cup, netting a sublime hat-trick against a rotated Norway side in the final game of Group I as well as scoring against Iraq and providing two assists, both for Mbappé.
Mbappé has always been a player who performs at World Cups, which is scary enough in its own right, but he now has two teammates who look equally capable of producing on the biggest stage.
Add in the fact that France’s attack is not a front three but a front four – with either Barcola and Désiré Doué playing a supporting role off the left – and this forward line should strike fear into the hearts of every defender still left in North America.
There are areas where France looks vulnerable, particularly in midfield, where the double pivot of Adrien Rabiot and Aurélien Tchouaméni looks noticeably weaker than the rest of the French team. The left-back berth, which has gone back and forth between Lucas Digne and Theo Hernández, also looks vulnerable.
But such is the quality that France possesses in the final third that it feels as though they can outscore every opponent they face. Deschamps also appears to have given his attacking players his blessing to play off-the-cuff soccer, dispensing with the pragmatic and formulaic systems that proved so successful in 2018 and 2022.
Against Sweden, it was poetry in motion as the front four combined effortlessly to unleash a barrage on the Swedish goal, to the point that one almost felt sorry for Jacob Widell Zetterström, who faced 13 shots on target during a relentless display.
The attacking performance was so devastating on Tuesday that it feels as though France can outscore any opponent, regardless of its shortcomings elsewhere.
Granted, France has not yet been tested in its four games, facing an underwhelming Senegal, an awful Iraq, a rotated Norway, and a limited Sweden, but it is unlikely to face a more significant challenge in the Round of 16 following Paraguay’s shock victory over Germany on Monday.
With the greatest respect to Paraguay, they make an extremely limited opponent that sat deep for 120 minutes against an insipid Germany and will find the going much tougher against a France side with Mbappé leading the line and Olise pulling the strings behind him.
That provides Mbappé with an opportunity to potentially overtake Messi – who plays against Cape Verde on Friday – in the all-time standings. But it is a record he is not particularly fussed about.
“I pay attention to that, but I’m also convinced that Leo (Messi) is going to score more goals, so I don’t focus on it too much,” Mbappé said. “I focus more on the opponents we might face and on how close we’re getting to our real target, which is the final.”
In what should be a warning for Paraguay and France’s potential opponents deeper in the competition, Mbappé still believes that this France outfit has room to improve.
“I think we’ll keep working here, game after game, to see how we can get better, because there are still some sequences that are a bit unclear, but they can be improved.”
The win over Sweden is, for now, France’s last scheduled game at MetLife Stadium, but it would be far from a surprise if the French returned to the East Rutherford venue for the final on July 19.
“The objective is to go as far as possible – to come back here on July 19 and try to win,” Mbappé said.
Should they manage that, they would join the Brazil team of 1994-2002 and the German team of 1982-1990, reaching three consecutive World Cup finals. It is also increasingly likely that they would face Argentina in the showpiece event for the second time running, as France and Argentina contested a World Cup final. Should that happen, it would mark only the second time in history that two teams contested back-to-back World Cup finals, following Germany and Argentina in 1986 and 1990.
Mbappé, now an experienced leader on this French side, is prepared to lead younger players through the challenges of knockout soccer.
“It’s really about managing emotions, managing stress, managing the fact that we might end up going home. I think this group is fully aware of what is at stake, and we’re prepared for this challenge.”
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