The French team won in Italy (1-3) on Sunday in the Nations League by scoring three goals from set pieces. A first in 33 years for the Blues.
An insolent and rare success. The French team won in Italy (1-3) on Sunday in the Nations League by scoring three goals from set pieces. Adrien Rabiot scored twice with a header after receiving a corner (2nd), then a free kick from Lucas Digne (65th). The latter had participated in making the break with a magnificent free kick (33rd) which hit the bar then the back of Italian goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario before entering the Italian goal.
You have to go back 33 years to find the trace of a victory for the Blues with so many goals scored in set phases. According to Opta, this dates back to March 30, 1991 during the great success against Albania (5-0) during qualifying for Euro 1992. That evening, Franck Sauzée had scored two free kicks and Jean-Pierre Papin had added to the penalty bill.
The two heroes of the evening, Lucas Digne and Adrien Rabiot, each celebrated their 50th selection in style. By scoring twice with a header in the same match, Rabiot even imitated a certain Zinedine Zidane, a double scorer of this kind in the final of the 1998 World Cup against Brazil (3-0). The Marseille midfielder is the first to achieve this performance in an official competition since this evening's first world title for the Blues. But Benjamin Pavard has already preceded him in a friendly match since he scored a double header against Scotland (4-1), on October 17, 2023.
Sunday evening, the set pieces largely carried the Blues to success since Didier Deschamps' men created very few chances in the game. They concluded the match with only six shots and 0.39 expected goals, this figure which determines the number of goals with which a team must finish the match depending on its chances.
