World Cup: Thuram provides assist and celebrates reaching the quarter-finals with France

Marcus Thuram and France have progressed to the World Cup quarter-finals with a 3-1 win over Poland. Borussia’s striker came into the game and played his part in the win by assisting the third goal.

Defending champions France started well by applying the pressure, but Poland held up well and repeatedly made some excursions forward. Les Blues had more of the game and took the lead shortly before half time thanks to Oliver Giroud’s goal. After the switch of sides, Didier Deschamps’ side pushed for that second goal, but were let down by a lack of precision in the final third.

That was the case until the 74^th minute until Kylian Mbappe showcased his footballing class and gave the French their second (74’). Deschamps brought on Marcus Thuram only two minutes after that for his third appearance at the World Cup - and the striker paid that faith back by assisting the third goal. It was Thuram’s ball that Mbappe converted (90+1) to stretch the lead to three goals. Just before the final whistle blew, Robert Lewandowski converted a penalty to make it 3-1 (90+9). With the win, France booked their place in the quarter-final where they will face England on Saturday.

End of the line for Scally and the USA

Meanwhile, Joe Scally and the USA exited the competition at the Round of 16 stage following their 3-1 defeat to the Netherlands. Borussia’s defender was unused in the game. The ‘Oranje’ went into an early lead through Memphis Depay (10’) and built on this lead just before half time (45+1). Haji Wright cut the deficit for the USA before Denzel Dumfries took the game away from them by tapping in from 5 yards out. Scally was denied his World Cup debut during this tournament.  

Gladbach's statement on the World Cup