Kylian Mbappe hit a brace as France defeated Denmark 2-1 in their second Group D fixture to become the first team to reach the knockout phase of the 2022 FIFA World Cup on Saturday evening.

Having beaten Australia in their first match a few days ago, the defending champions needed a win to progress to the next round of the competition and two second half goals from Mbappe got the job done.

It was a relatively close encounter between the two teams in the first half of the game but France were the side closest to finding the back of the net on multiple occasions.

Adrien Rabiot almost doubled his tournament goal tally in the 22nd minute of the encounter when he met Ousmane Dembele cross with a thumping header but his effort was saved by Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.

Schmeichel was again called into action less than fifteen minutes later, using his last-gasp foot effort to deny Antoine Griezmann’s acute shot from rolling into the net.

The only real chance for Denmark to get an opener was in the 35th minute when Jasper Lindstrom found Andreas Cornelius with the ball and had the chance to trouble France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris but the former sent the effort wide.

Goalless, the close contest ended at halftime time.

France’s threat in the Denmark half finally paid off in the 62nd minute when Kylian Mbappe scored his second goal of the competition to break the deadlock for Les Bleus from a one-two pass between him and Theo Hernandez.

Barely five minutes later, Andreas Christensen fired a powerful header from Christian Eriksen’s corner kick to score Denmark first goal of this FIFA World Cup and equalised for Denmark in what was their first effort on target in the encounter.

Lindstrom almost put Denmark in ahead for the first time in the game but his 73rd first-time shot from the penalty spot was denied by brilliant Llorin to keep France in the game.

Five minutes before the 90 minutes normal time, Mbappe tapped Griezmann’s brilliant cross from the top right corner of the field to score his second goal of the night and sealed the victory for France, sending them into the FIFA World Cup round of 16.