France made three changes from their opening game, with Bradley Barcola replacing Desire Doue on the left wing, Manu Kone stepping in for Aurelien Tchouameni in midfield, and Lucas Digne preferred to Theo Hernandez at left-back.

Mbappe opened the scoring before the quarter-hour mark when he controlled a pass with his right foot and sent in a shot from 20 metres which was too powerful for Iraq goalkeeper Ahmed Basil.

Graham Arnold's side were then dealt a blow as captain and striker Aymen Hussein had to come off with just 26 minutes gone.

 

The weather delay made for a surreal atmosphere as the storm passed overhead, leaving supporters drenched, and forced the players to sit it out in the dressing room.

When play resumed, Iraq caved in, with a calamitous passage of play gifting Mbappe and France their second goal on 54 minutes.

A goal-kick was taken by defender Zaid Tahseen who tried to give it goalkeeper Basil, but he hit it too hard and wide, and Dembele was able to set up Mbappe for a simple finish.

 

Michael Olise then hit the bar with a delicate chip before the Bayern Munich man set up Dembele to fire in on 66 minutes for 3-0.

Next up for Mbappe and France is a meeting with Erling Haaland's Norway in Boston on Friday, but the 2022 beaten finalists are already certain of reaching the last 32 after notching two wins from two games in Group I.

 

Iraq, meanwhile, are staring at the prospect of early elimination after this defeat followed a 4-1 loss to Norway in their opening game – they have now lost five games out of five across two FIFA World Cups, 40 years apart.