Basically, competition remains their school of play and when the homework session has to be stretched out, like a friendly match, they have their minds wandering and their heads elsewhere. In an interesting but unsuccessful meeting from an offensive point of view, the Blues suffered their first official defeat since November 30, 2022 against Tunisia (1-0) even if we cannot really consider the final lost on penalties of the World Cup against Argentina (3-3) as a success.
In a very overhauled formation, marked by the absence of their captain, Kylian Mbappé, who remained on the bench throughout the match (he felt pain in his foot), they lacked bite and solutions in attack. But they learned, like Jean-Clair Todibo, baptized in A at the end of a nightmarish night in the Rhur, in front of the newfound pride of the Germans. They are not doing better, they just came across a France team lacking its usual executives, its attacking strengths.
The German pressing from the outset, the fury itself, will have carried away the Blues who were too upset to contain it. They had changed system, returning to the 4-4-2 before Euro 2021, with a replacement Kylian Mbappé, an unprecedented hinge with the first selection of Jean-Cair Todibo, a Benjamin Pavard absent from the field for a month and the hybrid role of Adrien Rabiot, not exactly in his traditional role of torchbearer. They would have liked to settle into the comfort of the first few quiet minutes, take some bearings and develop their game at the same time as they gauged themselves to find out what they could be worth one evening with so many new things.
Maignan is no longer impassable
But Rudi Völler, the interim coach, smelled a bargain and asked for a wild start unless his players wanted to salute in their own way the dismissal of Hansi Flick and stop looking like losers in the eyes of Europe after the spanking against Japan (1-4) last Saturday. In less than four minutes, the eternal Thomas Müller scored the first goal in Mike Maignan’s career as number 1 in the French team.
But Germany did not insist when the Blues, thanks to a break from Antoine Griezmann in a 4-2-3-1, regained control of the match, without really causing any harm. They confirmed, five days after Aurélien Tchouaméni and Marcus Thuram made it possible to beat Ireland (2-0) as an exception confirming the rule, that they had every difficulty scoring without Olivier Giroud, forfeit, nor Kylian Mbappé, knee discomfort.
This is the limit of this French team, with its creators of disorder – Dembélé took over from Coman in the 65th and Thuram from Kolo Muani – to permanent inefficiency. Danger comes from everywhere but it rarely materializes beyond two players even if Antoine Griezmann will end up converting a penalty at dusk. This is an area of work, after an even softer second half ahead. On October 13, they return to competition in the Netherlands in the Euro 2024 qualifiers with the idea of regaining a taste for victory.
