France secured a heavy 4-0 win over Iceland in their Euro 2020 qualifier on Monday, and one of those goals scored came from Olivier Giroud.
It was an adventitious goal but the Chelsea striker will not care. The goal, his 35th in 89 appearances, took him to third in France’s all-time scorers’ list behind Thierry Henry and Michel Platini. Only those two can boast a better scoring rate than the target man, who has been in fine form in the last few weeks.
Only two men in the history of the French national team have scored more goals for their country than Olivier Giroud:
🇫🇷 Thierry Henry
🇫🇷 Michel PlatiniNot a bad duo to be keeping company with. pic.twitter.com/fXCareF4Dt
— Squawka (@Squawka) March 25, 2019
At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Giroud scored no goals as France lifted their second World Cup trophy but he was hailed by his head coach Didier Deschamps as being very integral to the brilliance his side put up in the tournament. After that though, Giroud has shown good form for Les Bleus.
The 31-year old has four goals since the World Cup, three of them coming in the last three games against Uruguay, Moldova, and Iceland.
His hattrick for Chelsea in the Europa League round-of-16 clash with Dynamo Kiev means Giroud is pushing Maurizio Sarri’s hand to consider him ahead of Gonzalo Higuain. That looks an impossibility, but he has proven that is it worth the attempt.
