France and Mexico Book World Cup Last 16 Places

France secured their place in the Last-16 of the 2026 World Cup with a comfortable win over Sweden in New Jersey.

Les Bleus started rampantly, with Michael Olise and Ousmane Dembele going close, while Kylian Mbappe hit the post and saw a goal disallowed for offside.

But their efforts were rewarded just before half-time, as Mbappe wriggled through a crowded penalty area and fired past the impressive Swedish keeper Jacob Zetterstrom to put France deservedly ahead at the break.

The interval offered only temporary respite for the Swedes, though, as France came out for the second half and continued to dominate.

And they didn’t have to wait long to find themselves with a two-goal cushion, as Olise found Bradley Barcola in the box on 53 minutes, and the PSG man duly slammed home.

Olise was at the heart of the French third, too, teeing up Mbappe to score his second of the match and sixth of the tournament, drawing him level with Lionel Messi.

Next up for France is a meeting with Paraguay on 4th July in Philadelphia.

In the overnight game, Mexico continued their fabulous form with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Ecuador at the Azteca.

A one-hour rain delay saw the game kick-off at 2am, but the Mexicans made up for lost time with a barnstorming first-half display that had them out of sight by the break.

First, Julian Quinones carried the ball through the Ecuador half before crashing the ball home midway through the half to put his side ahead, and Raul Jimenez benefited from some sloppy Ecuadorian defending eight minutes later to put the Mexicans 2-0 up.

Ecuador pushed for a route back into the game, with John Yeboah and Kevin Rodriguez going close, but their misery was confirmed in injury time, when Arsenal defender Piero Hincapie was sent off for covering his mouth while arguing with Mexico’s Santiago Gimenez.

But it’s Mexico who go through, and they’ll wait to see who they face from England’s clash with DR Congo this evening.