Iraq coach jokes of plan to stop Mbappé: Asking to play 3 keepers - ESPN

Kylian Mbappé passed Pelé on the World Cup goal-scoring list and inched closer to setting the overall goal record for the tournament. And, Mbappé also set France's national team goal-scoring record.

All that in just his first World Cup game of this tournament.

Stopping the 2022 Golden Boot trophy winner seems almost impossible.

Iraq coach Graham Arnold — tasked with slowing down Mbappé and the 2022 World Cup finalists France on Monday in the second Group I match — had an idea that might have worked.

«I asked if we could play three goalkeepers,» Arnold said with a laugh on Sunday. «But they said no.»

The 27-year-old Mbappé, who stars for Real Madrid, has another milestone to hit against Iraq before his powerful foot takes a single kick. Already playing in his third World Cup and a champion in 2018, Mbappé will play his 100th international game for France.

«It's always a pleasure to be able to play on the national team,» Mbappé said at a jam-packed news conference inside the locker room of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles. «There's nothing bigger than the national team. One hundred, that's historic. All the more when it's the World Cup.»

He could overtake coach and former captain Didier Deschamps (103 appearances as a midfielder) if France goes deep at this tournament. Barring injury, Mbappé could go on to overtake goalkeeper Hugo Lloris' record of 145 appearances for Les Bleus.

Mbappé, one of two men to have a hat trick in a World Cup final, scored his 13th and 14th World Cup goals in France's 3-1 tournament-opening victory against Senegal. Those were his 57th and 58th playing internationally, tying and passing Oliver Giroud for the most in the country's rich history.

Mbappé's second goal vs. Senegal broke a tie with Pelé on