Held in check by the Netherlands this Friday in Leipzig (0-0), the France team showed a lot of waste in a tasteless meeting, marked by the absence of Mbappé, goal and inspiration. The Blues will have to seek qualification against Poland on Tuesday.
You are missing only one being, and everything is depopulated. A cliché but so true this Friday evening on the pitch in Leipzig. Without Kylian Mbappé, who remained on the bench due to his broken nose, the Blues showed a pale face against the Netherlands on the Leipzig pitch (0-0) for their second Euro match.
Despite the absence of the new Real Madrid player, everything came together for a great evening: enthusiastic supporters, qualification at stake… The Blues fans were finally treated to a slew of missed gestures, the first 0-0 of the competition and a lot of regrets. “Kylian, it’s Kylian, we’re not going to compare him to the others,” Didier Deschamps first whispered at the microphone of M6. “Obviously Kylian, he’s one of the best players in the world so we miss a player like that who isn’t on the pitch,” admitted Aurélien Tchouaméni. However, the shadow of Bondy’s crack hovered over the pitch during the entire match.
>> Relive Netherlands-France (0-0)
An offensive copy to perfect
After a crescendo start against Austria (0-1), the French team wanted and had to engage diesel mode to ensure their qualification for the round of 16 this Friday. However, the Blues were on alternating current. First threatened from the first minute on a Frimpong strike stopped by Maignan, Didier Deschamps’ men proved to be the most dangerous in front of Verbruggen’s goals. Aligned as a second striker, Antoine Griezmann crunched in front of goal, like his two incredible wasted opportunities where his support slipped away, while showing waste on set pieces.
Waste, Marcus Thuram and Ousmane Dembélé also showed some on the attacking front. Often lonely, the Inter player had little ammunition to put into his mouth, and the only ones often ended in a mess, like his completely unscrewed shot which flew into the uncertain sky of Leipzig. On his right side, the Parisian tried to use his speed, but a large part of his races and his choices often came up short. Enough to leave many questions in this sector of the game, the only French goal scored in the competition being the csc of the Austrian Wöber during the first match.
“There are periods when everything fits, others where it is more complicated. The important thing is to create these situations. With the quality we have, I am confident that it will be better with success and confidence, we learned it on the day of the match. It’s a system in which we played for years, it doesn’t change much, we played. in 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 for years”, Kingsley Coman put things into perspective at the RMC microphone at the final whistle.
Kanté, the boss’s tour
The offensive slag also highlighted waste in the game and a lack of rhythm in certain sequences, even if N’Golo Kanté still delivered an XXL performance on all fronts, enough to allow him to bring home a second trophy. man of the match in his bags. “He is radiant. It’s a very good thing for us. I have a lot of players capable of being a starter, especially in midfield. But NG has a very interesting ability to project himself,” said Deschamps. admiring on M6.
Several French errors also offered ammunition to the Dutch, who were just as clumsy in the last gesture (Frimpong, Gakpo). Already interesting against Austria, the Upamecano-Saliba hinge once again scored points and allowed the Tricolores to record a fourth clean sheet in a row.
More relaxed upon returning from the locker room, the French rearguard nevertheless faltered on the Batavians’ only opportunity in the second act, concluded by a disallowed goal from Xavi Simons for an offside by Dumfries on the action. A decision “difficult to digest” for the main party and a “clearly valid” achievement for Ronald Koeman and the Dutch, who did not hesitate to cry foul at the final whistle.
“Ok, our player (Dumfries, editor’s note) is in an offside position. But look at the images: he does not bother the French goalkeeper, who is late and does not have the possibility of diving The presence of a player in his vicinity changes nothing: as soon as Simons’ shot, Maignan is no longer able to prevent the goal,” complained the Batavian coach at the microphone. the NOS channel.
A not so bad draw?
A bit of success for the Blues who are always down when their number 10 is not on the field. In the last seven matches without its captain, the France team has never won (five wins, two losses) and the options to replace him have not been satisfactory. Overall, the choices made by Didier Deschamps this Friday did not pay off. Despite the many things to correct, the French coach only made two changes (Giroud and Coman entered in the last quarter of an hour) too late to hope to change the purring dynamics of a collective deprived of hours of recovery less compared to his evening opponent.
A piece of data still not digested by “DD”. “It was a match with great intensity, a Dutch team more cautious than usual. Compared to the opponent, we had no less than 36 hours less recovery. We responded on the plan athletic despite everything, we did everything we needed to recover as much as possible but oh well,” the coach seemed to regret.
If we prefer to see the glass half full, this evening in Leipzig is far from being a disaster. Certainly, the game developed is light years away from the Spanish tiki-taka, but the evening is successful from an accounting point of view. With four points in two days, the French team has one foot in the round of 16 (to at least secure a place in the four best thirds). “We didn’t manage to make it happen. It happens sometimes, but 0-0 is good to take,” according to Coman.
A qualification that will have to be sought against a Poland on the edge of the precipice, Tuesday in Dortmund. Enough to give Mbappé a little more time to heal his nose and give the Blues some momentum ahead of the final sprint. “The situation is improving every day. If it was a decisive match we might have acted differently but we have to give him time to recover,” said Didier Deschamps after the match. For a rise to glory?
