France struck early through Michael Olise and sealed the points with a late Kylian Mbappe breakaway to beat Ukraine 2-0 and open their World Cup qualifying campaign in style.

Mbappe’s 82nd-minute strike on Friday, set up by his Real Madrid teammate Aurelien Tchouameni at the end of a rapid counterattack, lifted the forward to 51 international goals, drawing him level with Thierry Henry in second place on France’s all-time scoring list, behind Olivier Giroud (57).

Second-half substitute Ousmane Dembele, who had already missed training this week with a thigh issue, aggravated the same injury after replacing Desire Doue at the interval.

Doue had sustained a knock on his right calf before halftime and could not continue. Dembele’s evening also ended early as he came off in the 81st minute

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