The defender scored the winning goal for the Lions of Teranga as they secured the victory they needed to advance to the knockout round, where they will face England on Sunday. Koulibaly skippered the side and expertly volleyed in at the back post for his first international goal.

Hakim Ziyech picked up the award last week when he starred in Morocco’s 2-0 win over Belgium. While the 29-year-old was denied a goal by a tight offside call in the first half, he set up Zakaria Aboukhlal’s clincher late on and played a key role as the north African side produced a stunning but deserved result against the No.2-ranked side in the world.

In being named Player of the Match, Ziyech became the third Blue to win the award in Qatar after Christian Pulisic who produced an eye-catching display in the United States’ goalless draw against England. The pair follow an illustrious gallery of Chelsea stars who have collected the prize since FIFA first began to recognise the outstanding player in every game of the tournament 20 years ago.

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The winners were initially selected by the FIFA technical group after each match and while no Chelsea player claimed the accolade in 2002, it was a different story four years later when no fewer than six members of Jose Mourinho’s Premier League side won Player of the Match awards.

Leading the way was Arjen Robben who in his first World Cup for the Netherlands at the age of 22 won the award twice after he scored the winner in his country’s opening 1-0 win against Serbia and Montenegro, before setting up Ruud van Nistelrooy’s decisive strike in a 2-1 victory over Ivory Coast. The Dutchman went on be named Player of the Match six times in total, a mark surpassed only by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo who recently collected their seventh awards in Qatar.

You can watch Robben's goal against Serbia and Montenegro here.

Although England went out in the quarter-finals in Germany, three of their Chelsea stars collected individual game honours in 2006. Frank Lampard shone in the Three Lions’ 1-0 opening win over Paraguay, John Terry helped Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side keep a clean sheet as Ecuador were beaten in the last 16 and Joe Cole collected his gong after netting a long-range wonder strike in a 2-2 draw with Sweden.

Meanwhile, Michael Essien was recognised after helping Ghana to a 2-0 victory over the Czech Republic while Claude Makelele was the standout performer for France as they began their campaign which took them all the way to the final with a 0-0 draw against Switzerland.

In addition to those six Blues, a couple of other Chelsea-linked players produced notable performances in 2006. Michael Ballack, who was set to move to Stamford Bridge as a free agent after the World Cup, collected the award twice after Germany beat Ecuador 3-0 in the group stage and eliminated Argentina in a penalty shoot-out in the quarter-finals, while Maniche, who was on loan from Dynamo Moscow in the second half of the 2005/06 season, won his award after scoring in Portugal’s brutal 1-0 win over the Netherlands in the last 16.

After being selected by the technical committee in 2002 and 2006, the winners of the Player of the Match awards since 2010 have been selected by an online poll on FIFA’s official website.

Two Blues were successful in the popular vote that year as Ashley Cole took the prize after England’s 0-0 draw with Algeria and Didier Drogba provided an assist in Ivory Coast’s 3-0 trouncing of North Korea.

In Brazil in 2014, David Luiz won his award after firing home a stunning free-kick in the host nation’s 2-1 quarter-final win against Colombia while John Mikel Obi stood out for Nigeria as they edged Bosnia 1-0 en route to the knockout rounds.

Watch Brazil's win against Colombia in 2014 here.

Eden Hazard collected his first World Cup Player of the Match prize in Brazil after setting up Belgium’s only goal in a 1-0 win over Russia before he captained and starred for his country in 2018 when he won three match awards in wins against Tunisia in the opening round, Japan in the round of 16 and England in the third-place play-off.

Watch Belgium's 5-2 win over Tunisia in 2018

While he also won the Silver Ball as the tournament’s second best player, Hazard was probably still envious of his Chelsea team-match N’Golo Kante who won the tournament with France and was named Player of the Match in a 0-0 draw against Denmark along the way.