France continued their dominance of European football with a resounding 14-0 win over minnows Gibraltar in their penultimate qualifying match for next year’s Euros. Les Bleus made history by becoming the side to have won by the largest margin in the history of the qualifiers.
Didier Deschamps’ side needed only three minutes to open the scoring through an own goal from Ethan Santos, before Marcus Thuram made it 2-0 just a minute later.
On the day he made his debut and became the youngest national team player for France in over 100 years, 17-year-old PSG starlet Warren Zaire-Emery scored for his country in the 16th minute.
Gibraltar saw their woes compounded in the 18th minute when Santos was given his marching orders, leaving ten men to face the battle.
There was no let up from France, and Kylian Mbappe scored from the penalty spot in the 30th minute to make it four. Olympique Marseille man Jonathan Clauss added his name to the scoresheet just four minutes later before Kingsley Coman scored in the 36th minute.
One minute later, Youssouf Fofana scored his first national team goal to make it seven for his side heading into the break.
The second half started with Gibraltar resisting, and it took until the 63rd minute for France to score again through Adrien Rabiot. Coman completed his brace two minutes later to make it nine.
PSG forward Ousmane Dembele scored his country’s tenth goal of the game in the 73rd minute and Mbappe scored one minute later.
Kylian Mbappe completed his hat-trick with an exquisite lob from 25 yards out in the 82nd minute before Olivier Giroud scored in the 89th minute.
France’s all-time top scorer scored an overhead kick in the first minute of added time to seal a historic win for Les Bleus.
The win eclipsed Les Bleus’ biggest-ever win, a 10-0 win over Azerbaijan, which came in 1995. It also eclipsed Germany’s record 13-0 win over San Marino in qualifying for Euro 2008.
Mbappe finished with three goals and three assists for France, and has now scored 300 career goals at age 24.
