World and European champions neutralized each other (2-2) this Wednesday during the last match of the group stage of Euro football which was marked by a wobbly arbitration. In the eighth, the Blues will meet Switzerland and the Seleçao will face Belgium.
Go for the Swiss Nati in Bucharest Monday: at the end of a strange game concluded in a draw (2-2) against the Portuguese Seleçao and that the referee of the meeting will have sagouiné in both directions, the Blues finished in the lead of a group F which fell short of making a mark victim, the German Mannschaft, saved by a goal from Leon Gorezka a few minutes from time (2-2 too) against the Hungarians who should have been seen as footballers rather than patriots instrumentalized by their leaders. It is clear that Raphaël Varane and his family have suffered less since the start of the competition. However, the least we can say is that there is still some way to go, even if Karim Benzema’s double this Wednesday will get him out of the eye of the storm where he had been trapped for a few days.
On Wednesday, coach Didier Deschamps emerged from the bench. Supposedly on the right, Antoine Griezmann had dezoned against the Hungarian selection on Saturday, bringing a cohort of Magyar defenders in the axis on a Karim Benzema who would have gladly done without while leaving the right side, Benjamin Pavard, to a loneliness that had leads the Munich player to swallow more kilometers during the first eighty minutes than any other French player. So: I leave Kylian Mbappé on the left because he no longer wants to hear from the right flank, I put Griezmann in the axis where he will go whatever I ask him, I move him back on the ground because he likes to defend ( and organize, so touch the ball) while giving Benzema a little air, I throw Corentin Tolisso on the right because it takes one to take this damn right side and he has the profile of the plasterer-mason . I multiply by the number of high intensity races of N’Golo Kanté, I index on the course of the Hungarian forint (which is not going strong), I divide by the tidal coefficient …
… And I am waiting to see. What we saw immediately was the Portuguese mastery. Difficult to objectify: this mastery is a feeling, that of greater security on each movement but also on the general conduct of the match, as if José Mourinho and consort were breathing the game in a fairer, deeper way. In the 13th minute, a huge clamor rose from the ground, raising everything in its path: in Munich, the Hungarians opened the scoring in front of the Germans.
Involuntary hand
So it also happens hundreds of kilometers away. The French players are going smoothly because they know they have qualified for two days and, to be honest, we have the impression that the Blues are out of time, elsewhere, nearby. Hugo Lloris also suddenly, who puts his fist in the mouth of Danilo on an aerial exit (yellow for the tricolor goalkeeper, it could be worse) and plunges precipitously on the penalty which follows, easily transformed by Cristiano Ronaldo (0-1, 31e). Dominated, the Blues will get the devil’s share: Mbappé collapses like a trickster in the area after an insignificant contact with the arm of the Portuguese Nelson Semedo and the Spanish referee Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz whistles the mazurka, like a hand extended by – beyond the Pyrenees and the borders which should never separate people. Benzema sticks to it (1-1, 45th + 2), parity with lemons.
At the limit of the smoldering blow, the Blues are going to blow the bank down when they return from the locker room. Paul Pogba releases his first ball in the timing of the evening and Benzema, still him, will win his face to face with the Portuguese goalkeeper Rui Patricio (2-1, 47th). The Blues have done nothing better than their opponents but they are in control. Perhaps tapped by his conscience, Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz will take them from their hands by whistling an involuntary hand – remember that intentionality is constitutive of the penalty according to Law 12 – of poor Jules Koundé, a first tenure on Wednesday. Here is Cristiano Ronaldo (2-2, 60th) again, and the persistent impression of seeing a referee doing his circus to the detriment of the players settles in the scorching air (30 ° C) where all these beautiful people are bathed.
Deschamps then reassembles his mechanic: no less than three players to succeed one another at the left-back position (Lucas Hernandez left at the break, Luca Digne injured then Adrien Rabiot), Kingsley Coman replaces Tolisso who will have finally spent his time in the axis and while a form of chaos sets in, punctuated by a vibrant audience to the rhythm of a match taking place elsewhere, the Blues regain the upper hand, imperceptibly at first, more clearly then, as if they were better in letting go or that they had started their match late. There will certainly be things to be cleared up before Monday.
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