England are set to face Kylian Mbappe, the man regarded by many as the best player on the planet, when they take on France in Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final at Al Bayt Stadium.
The 23-year-old forward, who scored four times en route to Les Bleus winning the 2018 tournament in Russia, leads the race for the Golden Boot in Qatar with five goals after a brace in the 3-1 last-16 victory over Poland.
Here, the PA news agency takes a closer look at Mbappe and the task of trying to stop him.
Formidable form
He subsequently scored a header, and set one up for Olivier Giroud, as France opened their Qatar campaign with a 4-1 win over Australia, notched two more goals in the 2-1 defeat of Denmark that followed, and then struck twice again, as well as teeing up another Giroud effort, against Poland on Sunday.
With nine overall, Mbappe has the same number of World Cup goals as Lionel Messi, and one more than Cristiano Ronaldo.
Previous encounters
John Stones, Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier and Eric Dier, all defenders in Southgate’s current squad, were among those to feature that evening.
There have also been a number of encounters between members of the squad and Mbappe at club level over the last few years, and varying amounts of success in keeping him quiet.
Perhaps the most encouraging occasion from an England perspective was Manchester City’s 2-1 Champions League semi-final first-leg victory at PSG in April 2021 that saw Stones and Walker excel as Mbappe struggled to make an impact.
Walker match-up
Poland defender Matty Cash, after facing the France forward on Sunday, was quoted by a number of newspapers as saying he thinks “if anyone’s going to stop Mbappe, Kyle is the man”.
Meanwhile, former England right-back Gary Neville, speaking on ITV, said of Walker that he “can’t actually think of another right-back in the world that I’d want to put up against” Mbappe.
He added: “This is a sensational player, the new best player in the world. (But) Kyle will get closer to him, he’s got more pace than the Polish players had.”
Neville’s former United team-mate Roy Keane emphasised it was not a one-man job, saying: “You double up, you get bodies around him. If you give him that much space, you are in trouble.”
Cutting off supply lines
“So the lads in the middle, (Jordan) Henderson, (Jude) Bellingham, (Declan) Rice, Stones and (Harry) Maguire, if they can stop that service into that central area it means Mbappe’s receiving far less dangerous passes.”
