Olivier Giroud scores 50th goal for France to give defending champions the lead against Australia: Watch

Adrien Rabiot and Olivier Giroud proved to be France’s heroes after netting in twice in quick succession to give France a 2-1 lead against Australia in the first half of their match.

Giroud has now scored 50 goals for his country, only one behind the legendary Thierry Henry. There are high chances that the AC Milan forward will be able to surpass Henry’s record in the ongoing tournament.

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Defending World Cup champions France were trailing against Australia in their Group D match after a goal by Graig Goodwin. Argentina losing to Saudi Arabia was the biggest upset of the group stage till date, but with Australia leading, chances of another upset were simmering up. Watch Goodwin’s strike right here:

France were feeling the absence of stalwarts like Karim Benzema, Paul Pogba, and Ngolo Kante, but showed their mettle once again when Rabiot and Giroud managed to put them forward. 

Check out the Juventus midfielder’s goal right here:

This is the moment when Giroud helped France take the lead:

Adrien Rabiot has now scored one and assisted one in the first half of the match itself. It remains to be seen whether France can extend their lead in the match with talented forwards like Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann, and Ousmane Dembele in the lineup.

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Mbappe came very close to extending France’s lead after he managed to reach a cross by Griezmann right in front of the Australia goal. However, the prolific PSG striker ended up shooting the ball over the crossbar.

The other two teams in the group, Tunisia and Denmark, played out a 0-0 draw, which means that Australia are currently at the bottom of the group table. The Socceroos will be at a similar situation like Argentina in Group C if they end up losing the ongoing match.