Finland 0-2 France: 5 talking points as Les Blues wrap up campaign with routine victory | 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers

#3 Moussa Diaby misses chance to impress

The 22-year-old failed to impress in his first start for France

Moussa Diaby had a lively cameo in France's victory over Kazakhstan, wherein he bagged an assist and looked solid overall. Following that performance, Didier Deschamps opted to reward the youngster with a place in the starting XI tonight.

But Diaby looked far from replicating that performance or making a strong case to nail down a starting berth. The winger cut an isolated figure in attack, struggling to make an impact for France against Finland's stoic defense.

In nearly an hour-long action, Diaby completed only 16 passes and mustered just one shot on target. That, too, was a tame effort right at Lukas Hradecky and was symbolic of the Leverkusen man's ineffectiveness on the night.

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#2 Teemu Pukki's campaign ends on a whimper

No glory for Teemu Pukki on his 100th international cap as Finland lost to France.

Finland's talismanic striker Teemu Pukki was among the leading scorers in the qualifiers entering the final month of the campaign, having netted six times.

However, the Norwich City ace failed to add a single goal to his tally this month, drawing a blank in back-to-back games against Bosnia and now France. Pukki had the opportunity to score from the spot on Saturday but missed it while he was largely ineffective last night (November 16).

However, for somebody operating in a squad like this, Pukki's is still an impressive tally. He finished with more goals than Mbappe and Benzema, and level with Antoine Griezmann and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Pukki's heroics were ultimately fruitless as the Huuhkajat failed to get into the play-offs. But without him, their campaign would've very likely been far worse.

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#1 Mbappe's quality comes to the fore again

Kylian Mbappe assisted France's first goal before scoring the second

This wasn't a good performance from Kylian Mbappe. It was certainly nowhere near the one he produced in the 8-0 drubbing of Kazakhstan last week. But the fact that he was still the difference-maker tells you everything about his quality.

Mbappe fluffed his lines in the opening stanza, missing one good chance and seeing the other parried away. But the PSG ace got his act together after the break and was involved in both of France's goals.

His assist for Karim Benzema was good as the latter opened the scoring, but the goal he scored to seal the game was even better. Mbappe beat Leo Vaisanen for pace down the left flank before bending a sublime strike into the bottom corner.

Even when not performing to his best, Mbappe manages to produce moments like that, straight out of the top-drawer, for both France and PSG. It's almost like the goal and assist against Finland were meticulously rendered in an Autodesk lab!

We're quickly running out of superlatives to describe the young superstar.