Mbappé silent against Northern Ireland, Deschamps jokes: "He's saving his goals for the United States"

Kylian Mbappé missed another opportunity to become France’s all-time leading goalscorer. On Monday, facing Northern Ireland (3-1), the Real Madrid striker multiplied his attempts — six shots in total — without finding the back of the net, just as in the previous friendly against Côte d’Ivoire.

His tally remains stuck at 56 goals for France, one behind Olivier Giroud’s record. These two World Cup warm-up matches nevertheless allowed him to reach 98 caps at age 27, surpassing Bixente Lizarazu and Laurent Blanc to enter the Top 10 most-capped players in Les Bleus’ history.

Didier Deschamps made no secret of his serenity in the press conference. “I’m not going to worry,” said the manager. “It’s true he had several chances but he wasn’t clinical,” before adding with humor: “He told me he was saving it for the United States, so that works for me.”

The evening instead belonged to Michael Olise, who scored a hat-trick. Deschamps praised the Bayern Munich winger’s performance: “He’s radiant, just like his season at Bayern. Everything is easy for him. He’s clinical and that’s very good.” The manager nevertheless reminded that other players will need to step up before the tournament.

Among them, Ousmane Dembélé, who was very quiet against Northern Ireland. Deschamps tempered expectations for him: “Ous arrived late but I can’t fault the players for managing things with what awaits us. Ousmane needs to recover physically and psychologically after what he did with PSG. It was a training run today.”