Saka laughs off comparisons to Mbappe ahead of England v France
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Alan Shearer has agreed with Ian Wright by warning that England cannot solely concentrate on France superstar Kylian Mbappe in their World Cup quarter-final clash on Saturday. He has picked out three other players to be wary of. The Three Lions will meet world champions France in the last eight in Qatar after beating Senegal on Sunday but face their toughest test yet in the tournament in the form of their European rivals.
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Gareth Southgate’s men cruised to a 3-0 success in their last-16 tie with Senegal with Jordan Henderson, Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka all getting on the scoresheet, while France swept aside Poland 3-1 thanks to an Mbappe brace and Olivier Giroud’s record-breaking 53rd goal for France, making him their all-time record goalscorer.
Mbappe stole the headlines for a sensational individual display after producing two stunning finishes and the PSG star will be the danger man to focus on when the two sides meet on Saturday.
But Shearer believes that France have other players who are just as valuable as Mbappe, pointing out the impact of Giroud, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele in helping Mbappe shine.
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Alan Shearer: The BBC pundit sent a warning to England ahead of their clash France clash (Image: BBC Sport)
In a discussion about France during the half-time interval of Japan’s World Cup last-16 match with Croatia, Shearer said: “France are a good side, irrespective of whether they’ve got five big hitters out injured.”
Lineker reminded him that they have Mbappe, describing him as “one of the best players in the world”. And the former England striker, while accepting of Mbappe’s talent, responded: “Yeah they have but look at England, look at Harry Kane, look at the options England have got, the forwards they’ve got and the goals that are being shared around.
“It’s not just Mbappe by the way because the France games I’ve seen, Griezmann’s played really, really well.
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France: Olivier Giroud and Antoine Griezmann will pose a danger to England (Image: Getty)
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“Obviously there’s Mbappe, but Giroud’s taken over the record from Henry, might not get as much love as he might deserve.
“What France do is put balls into the box for him [Giroud] either side, Dembele and Mbappe, they move the ball out one yard and whip the ball in. I think that should actually suit us because our players are used to that.”
Shearer’s comments will come as no surprise to those who have watched France, who have been impressive despite missing key figures such as Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante, Karim Benzema and Christopher Nkunku.
Kylian Mbappe: The France star has scored five goals in the competition (Image: Getty)
And his comments echoed those of his former international team-mate Wright, who warned against solely trying to stifle Mbappe: “I don't think you can ignore [Griezmann],” Wright told ITV.
“Obviously, you can't ignore Mbappe [either] but Griezmann is the one who knits everything together. [Ousmane] Dembele as well.
“You've got to stop Griezmann, [get] on him, it'll be tough to stop someone like Dembele but this is what it's about. If you want to win this tournament, you're going to have to come up against the world champions.
“We're going into the Mbappe era but [France] haven't kept a clean sheet yet in the competition.”
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