EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — France's fearsome foursome of Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise and Bradley Barcola leaves opponents exclaiming: Sacré bleu!
“Their four up front is the best in the competition by far,” Norway coach Ståle Solbakken said.
France became the first nation to score three or more goals in five consecutive World Cup matches when it beat Sweden 3-0 Tuesday and advanced to a round of 16 match against Paraguay this weekend. Seeking to reach their third straight World Cup final, Les Bleus are a favorite to dethrone defending champion Argentina.
“There is something that we cannot hide, that we have a lot of quality in the team," French midfielder N’Golo Kanté said. ”But I think it’s the same for many other teams. We cannot see ourselves too beautiful or too strong."
After defeating Croatia for the 2018 title, France lost to Argentina on penalty kicks in the 2022 final. Les Bleus are 4-0 in this year's tournament, outscoring opponents 13-2.
“We always have to be more and more demanding because the opponents that we’re going to face are going to be demanding,” France coach Didier Deschamps said. “We need to fine-tune things and transform some negative points. Even though we didn’t have a lot of consequences, we did concede two goals.”
Mbappé is tied with Argentina’s Lionel Messi with a tournament-high six goals after getting his third brace Tuesday. Dembélé is tied for fourth with four goals.
Olise leads with five assists, while Mbappe and Dembele have two apiece. Barcola has a goal and two assists.
Mbappé scored 18 goals in 18 World Cup games, one behind Messi’s career record of 19 in 29 matches.
“I know that I do have qualities but I do have to show them on the largest stage that is the World Cup,” Mbappé said.
France is using a 4-2-3-1 formation and Deschamps allows freedom to be fluid.
“They come in different positions. They’re not static,” Swedish forward Viktor Gyökeres said. “They know each other well in how they move and their connection between each other.”
Captain of France’s 1998 champions, Deschamps took over as manager in 2012 and announced in January he will retire this summer. The victory over Sweden was his record 18th as a World Cup coach.
Les Bleus scored 14 goals over seven games in winning the 1998 World Cup, 12 when it captured its second title in 2018 and 16 four years ago.
“We’re very much more offensive than in 2018 and in 2022,” Mbappé said through a translator. “It’s the continuity of what we started to build throughout Didier Deschamps’ tenure over the last 14 years. You can see the evolution, his personal touch, and the arrival of a lot of young talent.”
France has overtaken Argentina for No. 1 in FIFA's rankings. Its four wins have come against teams currently ranked 18th (Senegal), 63rd (Iraq), 21st (Norway) and 37th (Sweden).
Paraguay, its next opponent Saturday, is 34th. Potential quarterfinal opponents include Morocco (sixth) and Canada (30th). Spain (No. 3) looms as a semifinal opponent.
Sweden coach Graham Potter proclaims France is the best team he's seen in the tournament.
“Because of the players in the wide areas, sometimes you have the double up on them because they could just beat you in 1-v.-1 situations,” he said. “And then they’ve got not a bad striker in the middle. So you’ve got problems here and you’ve got problems here. And then it can also build up with good control, strong center backs, so direct football isn’t easy against them either."
France is bidding to become just the third nation to reach three straight World Cup finals after Germany (1982-90) and Brazil (1994-2002).
“We have really good memories, also bad ones with what happened the last time that we played the World Cup,” said midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni, a member of the 2022 team. “Everybody is ready to fight and to give everything to make sure that all the French people are going to be proud of us.”
This story has been corrected to show France defeated Croatia, not the Czech Republic, in the 2018 final.
See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here
France's Kylian Mbappe (10) celebrates scoring their third goal with Michael Olise (11) during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between France and Sweden in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
-France's Kylian Mbappe (10) celebrates their first goal with Ousmane Dembele, left, during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between France and Sweden in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A ship ran aground in the Strait of Hormuz while using a route not approved by Iran, state television in Tehran reported Wednesday. The vessel was identified as a foreign container ship, with no other details.
The report appeared aimed at underlining Tehran’s claims to control the strait, which the world has long considered an international waterway. It saw a fifth of all oil and natural gas pass through it in peacetime.
Iran has used its ability to choke off the waterway as a key source of leverage since the war began, disrupting global markets for energy and other critical goods.
The report came as U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, were in Doha, Qatar, for talks over reaching a permanent end to the Iran war. Iran's top negotiator, Kazem Gharibabadi, traveled to Qatar with a team as well.
Technical talks between diplomats began Wednesday in Qatar, said two regional officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door discussions. Negotiators aim to nail down specifics to pave the way for top leaders to seal an agreement, though differences over the strait and Lebanon loom large.
Iran and the United States agreed as part of an interim deal to allow ships to pass uncharged for 60 days, but Tehran insisted it must control the routes of the vessels and later charge fees for passage, upending decades of practice in the waterway.
The U.S. and many Gulf Arab states say they won't agree to the charges. An effort by Oman and a U.N. agency to launch a new route near Oman's shore sparked attacks across the Mideast over last weekend, highlighting the tensions.
Iranian state TV on Wednesday said the ship “ran aground with its cargo because of shallow waters along the route it had chosen and was unable to continue sailing.” It said shippers needed to follow the instructions of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in the strait.
The Guard's navy “has repeatedly warned captains, shipowners and officials of shipping companies around the world that any entry or exit through routes other than the ‘Route of Authority’ in the Persian Gulf could lead to irreparable incidents,” it said.
The report did not mention the two ships Iran attacked in recent days for daring to head out through the strait without Tehran's permission, including one carrying crude oil from Qatar.
Witkoff and Kushner arrived in Qatar on Tuesday ahead of talks, with Qatar mediating. While Iran has said it planned no meetings with the Americans, there was the possibility of so-called “indirect negotiations,” in which the nations pass messages through Qatari officials. That has happened multiple times during negotiations in the second Trump administration.
Qatar early Wednesday acknowledged a meeting between the Americans and its foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. A readout from Qatar's Foreign Ministry said the men talked about the interim deal “along with the efforts aimed at promoting security and stability in the region through dialogue and diplomacy.”
Sheikh Mohammed also met with Gharibabadi and other Iranian officials. An Iranian statement said they discussed “the implementation process of the memorandum of understanding on ending the imposed war, as well as the existing challenges and obstacles to its implementation.” Pakistani mediators also were on hand.
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a key negotiator, told Iranian state television overnight that work continues to try to reach a permanent end to the war.
“We are engaged in dialogue, but if they refuse to implement what has been agreed through dialogue, we are prepared for war,” Qalibaf said.
Lebanon is another key point in a final deal. Iran has insisted that all fighting between the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah and Israeli military forces there end.
Iran also has called for Israel to give up the land it occupies in southern Lebanon now. Israel insists it must hold the territory and have a free hand to attack Hezbollah, which has been launching attacks into northern Israel.
While ship traffic in the strait dropped after this weekend's attacks, more countries say their vessels have gotten out.
Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that 10 out of 11 Thai-flagged vessels or vessels chartered by Thai operators have departed the Strait of Hormuz safely. South Korean officials say all but two of the country’s 26 vessels that were stranded have left safely.
Also Wednesday, Iraqi authorities shot down a small drone over Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, where many embassies and government buildings are located, two Iraqi security officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. One of the officials said the drone was unarmed and likely was being used for surveillance. No group immediately claimed the drone as theirs.
After the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran in late February, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias launched frequent attacks on U.S. military and diplomatic facilities in Iraq. The drone being shot down overnight Wednesday was the first security incident in Baghdad since the U.S. and Iran agreed to a ceasefire.
Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Najib Jobain in Doha, Qatar, Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok, Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
A group of people stands in shallow water as a cargo ship appears anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
