Even when Antoine Griezmann is no longer there, Kylian Mbappé is absent and it is not a very big night, the France team is therefore capable of scoring goals. Not just one or two, but indeed four, as against Israel (4-1), during the Blues’ victory in the League of Nations, Thursday October 10, in the Bozsik Aréna in Budapest (Hungary) – the Israeli selection has no longer played matches on its territory since the attacks of October 7.
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“Four goals, it’s been a while since that happened to us”observed Didier Deschamps after the meeting. It had been eleven months and fourteen matches, like the number of goals scored against Gibraltar (14-0), in November 2023. One year and a success against Scotland (4-1), in October of the same year, for an opposition worthy of the name. The taunts about the French inefficiency in attack have been too numerous in recent months to overshadow this statistic: against Israel, the Blues scored five shots and scored four times.
“We know that if we want to win, we have to be efficient. Today we were”welcomed Bradley Barcola, who scored the last French goal of the evening at the end of the match (89th). However, it would be inaccurate to claim that the final gap of three goals is the result of implacable logic. It certainly reflects the difference in technical level between the two teams, but not the overall French performance.
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In control, the Blues were in control without too many problems, like these 67% of ball possession and a solid defensive base – despite an alignment error on Omri Gandelman’s goal (24th), on the only Israeli situation of the match. “We were serious and diligent”described the coach, who also considered that his players had demonstrated “lots of enthusiasm”. However, this desire to wrap up the match was not obvious, with long periods of inertia, particularly in the second period.
Camavinga and Nkunku scored points
The international retirement of Griezmann has favored, at this gathering, the takeover of power of young players, who still have to toughen up on the international scene and become more tamed to produce all too rare moments of grace in attack. On the pitch, only Ousmane Dembélé had more than 40 caps. “It’s a good opportunity, with the arrival of this new generation”said Eduardo Camavinga, after the match, at the microphone of TF1.
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