France players celebrate after France's Ousmane Dembele, second right, scored his side's opening goal during the World Cup 2022 group D qualifying soccer match between Kazakhstan and France
France collected its first win in World Cup qualifying by beating Kazakhstan 2-0 on Sunday, with Kylian Mbappe’s second-half penalty miss proving insignificant for the reigning champions.
France coach Didier Deschamps made a raft of changes from the 1-1 draw with Ukraine that opened the world champions’ Group B campaign and one of the players recalled, Ousmane Dembele, drove home the first goal from the edge of the area in the 19th minute.
Kazakhstan inadvertently gifted the French a second goal in the 44th when Sergey Malyy headed a corner from Antoine Griezmann into his own net as the defender jostled with Paul Pogba in the area.
The corner had only come about following an incredible goal-line clearance by Malyy to deny Anthony Martial a simple header into the net from close range.
They were France’s only two efforts on target in the first half but the team created more openings after the break, with Kazakhstan goalkeeper Alexandr Mokin saving brilliantly from Dembele and Mbappe, who came on after Martial hurt his left knee.
Mbappe won a penalty in the 75th after being tripped by Nuraly Alip, but his spot kick was tipped aside by Mokin.
Martial, the Manchester United forward, appeared to injure himself by getting his studs caught in the synthetic turf at Astana Arena in Nur-Sultan, the type of issue Deschamps was concerned about before the match.
There did not appear to be any other injuries, leaving Deschamps with plenty of options for the qualifier at Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday, which is expected to be tougher for the French.
Ukraine plays Finland later Sunday.
