Argentina are out of the World Cup.
Having scraped through their group with a late Marcos Rojo winner against Nigeria, they were sent home by a Kylian Mbappe-inspired France in the last-16 on Saturday afternoon.
Mbappe won an early penalty for his country in Kazan. Later on, he was responsible for the third and final French goals in Didier Deschamps’ team’s 4-3 victory. It was an incredible display from the still-only-19-year-old, a reminder to everyone watching that he’s capable of one day reaching the same kind of heights as the man wearing the number ten shirt for the opposition.
He's still very young, but of all the world's talents, only Mbappe can realistically hope to achieve Messi-like levels of greatness | @SmnLlyd5 #FRA #worldcup https://t.co/ESOhekset0
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOE_UK) June 30, 2018
Mbappe’s pace posed problems for Argentina from the early moments and played a big part in him winning the penalty after ten minutes. Now, after the game, it’s emerged his blistering speed has earned him a new nickname.
Mbappe was officially clocked running at a speed of 32.4km per hour at one stage of the game. In actual fact, it emerged later that he’d reached a speed of almost five km per hour faster. As a result of this, a report by Marca reports how Florian Thauvin revealed that he and his other teammates have renamed him “the 37”.
The striker’s brace against Argentina means he now has three goals in the tournament so far. He’ll hope to add to this when France take on Uruguay – who defeated European champions Portugal later on Saturday – in their quarter final in Nizhny Novgorod on Friday.
