It was only a matter of time before Kylian Mbappé punished Sweden in the World Cup round of 32 on Tuesday.In the 20th minute, France’s star forward found the back of the net before he was ruled offside, and just 12 minutes later, he took a strike that left the goal post rattling. Mbappé was determined to break through before half time and found his perfect opportunity in a short cornerkick play. He received the ball just inside the box, did a stunning step-over to leave Swedish star Viktor Gyökeres down in the grass and rocketed a curving shot to the far post past goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterström to secure a 1–0 lead in the 45th minute.With the emphatic finish, Mbappé became the all-time leading goal scorer in the knockout stages of the World Cup. Mbappé has scored nine times in the knockout stages (across just nine matches in three tournaments), most famously including a hat trick in the 2022 World Cup final. He surpassed Leônidas and Ronaldo of Brazil, both of whom had eight goals in World Cup knockout round play. Mbappé also took sole possession of second place in all-time World Cup goalscoring, earning his 17th total tournament goal to surpass the former all-time goalscorer Miroslav Klose (16). Only 39-year-old Lionel Messi of Argentina has more total World Cup goals than Mbappé with 18 across his six World Cup appearances. The 27-year-old Frenchman, still in the peak of his career, is destined to surpass Messi at some point, if not this summer. The finish marked Mbappé’s fifth this summer alone, tying him for second in the tightly-contested Golden Boot race with Norway’s Erling Haaland. Mbappé celebrated the moment with a warm embrace of French manager Didier Deschamps, who returned to the touchline after briefly traveling back to France for his mother’s funeral. READ THE LATEST WORLD CUP NEWS, ANALYSIS AND INSIGHT FROM SI FCAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow