France forward Antoine Griezmann drew level with Michel Platini to become his country’s joint-third top scorer of all time on Tuesday with his brace in the World Cup qualifying match against Finland.
Griezmann was the match decider for Les Bleus as they ended their winless streak with a 2-0 win to extend their lead at the top of Group D.
He scored a goal in both halves in what was a brilliant outing overall by Didier Deschamps side.
The Atletico Madrid forward is now up to 41 goals for France, drawing him level with football legend Michel Platini.
The 30-year-old needed 98 caps to match the tally of the 1984 European Championship winner. Meanwhile, Griezmann not only draws level with Platini, but he is now 10 goals behind all-time leading scorer Thierry Henry.
“It’s a great source of pride,” Griezmann told TF1 on matching Platini in the France goalscoring record.
“Since I’ve been here, since 2014, I always try to bring the best, whether it’s goals, with my defensive or offensive work.”
When asked if Tuesday’s match was his best performance for Les Bleus, the striker said: “There have been others. But I am very happy with my performance and that of the team.”
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After a rather disappointing Euros outing and a streak of under-par results, Griezmann was happy with the team’s response against Finland.
“We wanted this victory, to show that we were solid and that we didn’t lose everything,” he said.
“There was a good state of mind. We gave everything we had on the field and we tried to hurt them up front.
“What changed? Maybe we found a system that suits us better. We’ll see, the coach will decide. But this time we were strong. We had drawn five times, and it was starting to take a long time. Here, we won in style.”
Griezmann was involved in a surprising deadline day move back to Atletico Madrid from Barcelona. The Spanish Champions secured his services on a loan deal with an option to buy.
The French forward will hope to put his struggles at Barcelona to bed and rediscover his goalscoring form with his former side.
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