The defending champions, France, have landed an uneasy encounter with England in the Quarter Finals of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Les Bleus might have had it easy with Poland in the round of 16 but England might stretch their defence to a limit that they haven’t experienced so far in the tournament.
But what we do not know can’t hurt us yet. France has a few days to freshen up and re-armour themselves for the Three Lions. Meanwhile, French fans across the world are enjoying an image that has encapsulated the minds and hearts of every person out there.
The French were finding it difficult to break the Polish defence until the 44th minute. The Poles had been sturdy and were successful at keeping the French attackers at bay.
However, Kylian Mbappe, the man of the moment for Didier Deschamps, found a pass that saw Olivier Giroud in the opposition box skid the ball over Wojciech Szczęsny.
France led at the brink of half time and Olivier Giroud became the French player with the most number of international goals, leaving behind the legendary Thierry Henry.
Giroud rushed to the corner to celebrate and saw Mbappe running toward him. And within a flash, Mbappe jumped and Giroud held him with his arms around Mbappe’s waist while maintaining eye contact that might embarrass every love bird out there.
Giroud had a smile while Mbappe glared back as if trying to see Giroud’s soul up close. This brief encounter created a lot of buzz especially when the duo was reported to have conflicts during the Euros last year.
The growing camaraderie between the two was totally on display and it was not easy to ignore such a sight, especially at a knockout stage of a World Cup.
Eyes locked, arms wrapped, hands on head, it was straight out of the famous pose from Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams starrer The Notebook.
Giroud and Mbappe have been the driving force for Les Bleus at this World Cup, and so the somewhat momentous celebration is only a testament to how important the duo have been to each other on the field.
After witnessing this budding romance between two stalwarts of French football, the netizens on Football Twitter had another meme-worthy material to display. Here’s how it looks:
Haven’t seen this kind of romance since Meg Ryan was dominating romantic comedies pic.twitter.com/s30bHyfIMN
