Finland has provided the surprise for this evening of international football. It went on to visit France with a 0-2 win. It is the first time ever that Finland has been able to win against Les Blues. For the world champion, this is the first home loss since March 2018.
Finland will play for the first time in a major tournament next summer and the team seems ready to show great things there. France certainly did not start at full strength, but with Pogba, Giroud and debutant Marcus Thuram there were still nice people between the lines. Thuram also had chances to score very quickly, but his header hit the crossbar and his shot went just over.
There seemed to be no cloud in the air for France until Sissoko gave the ball to the Finns just before half an hour. Forss ran the sixteen and finished coolly. One blow to the home team and another three minutes later. This time it was Valakari who scored: 0-2 at half time.
After coffee, the French tried to turn the tide and Martial, Griezmann and Varane also got playing minutes. But besides a lot of possession, little came of it. It is the first home defeat for the men of national coach Didier Deschamps since March 2018 against Colombia.
