Didier disillusioned – RTBF News

The beauty of the international gathering in March is that, in the absence of anything at stake, it allows the various coaches to carry out their final tests before the Euro. Repeat their ranges, take risks, try things, refine certain automatisms.

So, sometimes it works and we are treated to good surprises, and sometimes, they miss things in great ways. Domenico Tedesco, the coach of the Devils admitted it, frankly, on Saturday evening after the Belgian non-match in Ireland: he was bored. It was time for the tests, most of them were inconclusive. Curtain, then, and head for England where the Devils should find a semblance of a typical team.

On his return plane, the coach will no doubt console himself by telling himself that he was not the only one to screw up one of his dress rehearsals before the Euro. A few hundred kilometers from Dublin, the Blues of Didier Deschamps, too, floundered in semolina. In Lyon, for their first match of the year.

The difference was that the French team faced an opponent of a much different caliber: Germany, in complete decline for two years, but which seems (finally) to be moving forward.

Especially since against the Blues, the Germans knew how to magnify the important moments. The start of the match for example, enhanced by a flash of genius from Florian Wirtz after… 8 seconds. In charge, and overall much more enterprising, the team did not deign to let go of his prey thereafter. The Blues, reshuffled, could only observe the damage. Apathetic, inexplicably passive, and quite incapable of setting fire to the cage of Marc-André Ter Stegen (2 shots on target).

The 2nd half was ultimately just a bland copy of the 1st: in two steps, three movements, Kai Havertz ended the suspense in the 49th minute. Trailing by two goals, the Blues subsequently never gave the impression of wanting to reverse the course of the match, simply content to endure the scenario of a match that escaped them. For the first time since 2022 and a defeat against Tunisia at the World Cup (0-1), they finish an official match without scoring a single goal…