France and Austria celebrate wins in World Cup openers

The French national team, featuring Bayern players Dayot Upamecano and Michael Olise, got off to a winning start in the World Cup against Senegal, who fielded FCB players Nicolas Jackson and Bara Sapoko Ndiaye. Austria, featuring Konrad Laimer, also tasted victory in their opening match. Read on for an overview of how the opening matches went.

In the FCB head-to-head on Tuesday in East Rutherford, Upamecano and Olise’s France side beat Senegal – featuring Jackson and Ndiaye – 3-1. After a closely contested first half, in which Senegal even managed to create the better chances at times, the French took control in the second half. In the 66th minute, Olise played a superb through ball to Kylian Mbappé, who finished to make it 1-0 for the Équipe Tricolore. Bradley Barcola (82') then doubled the lead for Les Bleus. Senegal pulled one back through a goal from Ibrahim Mbaye in stoppage time (90'+5), but just a minute later Mbappé sealed the victory with the third and his second goal. Olise, who was named Man of the Match for his outstanding performance, and Upamecano played the full 90 minutes for France; Jackson was in Senegal’s starting XI and came off in the 83rd minute, whilst Ndiaye watched the clash from the bench.

The French are back in action against Iraq in Philadelphia next Monday evening (23:00 CEST), whilst Senegal face Norway in East Rutherford at 02:00 CEST on Tuesday.

Konrad Laimer and the Austrian national team celebrated a 3-1 victory over Jordan in San Francisco early on Wednesday morning (CEST). Jordan managed to equalise through Ali Olwan (50’) after Romano Schmid had opened the scoring (21’). However, Austria sealed the victory thanks to an own goal by Yazan Al Arab (76') and a penalty from Marko Arnautović (90'+12). FCB's Laimer played the full 90 minutes.

The Austrians’ next match is next Monday at 19:00 CEST in Arlington against the reigning world champions, Argentina, who beat Algeria 3-0 in their opening match.