We will be careful not to say that the France team is completely cured. That it has purged all its ills, and definitively closed the book of the failure of the last Euro. In this area, we will be more educated next month against Belgium, then Spain or Italy (in the League of Nations), oppositions more consistent than the three countries faced during this month of September. But this success against Finland – the first after five draws – speaks to a team and players driven by a pride that pushed them to reform.
It is true that we could hardly do worse than their first two outings against Bosnia-Herzegovina (1-1) and Ukraine (1-1). This victory, in a Groupama Stadium happy to find ambitious Blues as much as to reconnect with Benzema, also clears the horizon for a qualification for the next World Cup in Qatar. Lloris and his partners do not yet have their ticket to the Gulf, but if they show the same diligence in performance, there is no reason that it will go wrong.
Because this is the main lesson of this Lyon evening. As during Euro 2016 against Eire (2-1), Deschamps and his men may have found, at Groupama Stadium, an idea of the game they intend to develop and which could continue in the months to come. . And if we follow the logic of a meeting that would have deserved to be more prolific, it should be over with Griezmann’s exile on the right side.
By choosing to put his number 7 back in line, as he had done during the second half in Ukraine, the coach returned his creative power and efficiency to his technical leader. And if the attacking trio Martial-Benzema-Griezmann worked beyond expectations, it is largely under the impetus of the player of Atlético de Madrid, who became equal to Michel Platini in the number of goals in the selection. (41).
Theo Hernandez interesting on his left side
We then saw all that we had missed so much with these Blues in recent weeks. Triangle play, races, sets in motion, play in small spaces… We stop there and we let you fill in the empty boxes knowing that we are touching the precepts at the high level. As these Blues are still recovering, we had to wait beyond the first quarter of an hour for the beautiful machine to start. But then it was a treat as much as a redemption.
And as what worked with Martial can also work, it seems to us, with Mbappé, we are nourished by hopes. Deschamps will have the choice: he will be able to reproduce his system with three axial defenders – the same which had precipitated the Blues on the way to the rout against Switzerland at the Euro – or propose another with a diamond-shaped midfielder for example, saw that Theo Hernandez was interesting on his left side. We’ll see. Anyway, he is also the big winner of this evening. The one who dusted off with a masterful victory the pressure that was beginning to weigh on his shoulders.
