This Thursday evening, N’Golo Kanté’s Saudi Arabia championship match had a very special flavor. Already because he was of capital importance for his Al-Ittihad team with a view to snatching fourth place, qualifying for the second Asian club competition, the AFC Champions League 2, but above all because he was the only player on the pitch who knew that he would participate in the Euro in Germany this summer (June 14 – July 14).
News of which the former Chelsea player was informed at the kick-off of this meeting against Al-Khaleej, 11th in the Saudi championship. In a team deprived of its other stars, Karim Benzema and Fabinho, number 7 attracted all eyes. For his 42nd match of the season, which he started as always as a starter, Kanté showed that he was well above the rather lackluster level offered by this meeting.
Always so generous
We know Kanté at the sentry post, capable like an octopus of scratching dozens of balloons. We discovered it a little higher up the pitch, but still with the same intensity. In a match which ended in a draw (1-1) with a much lower intensity than in Europe, “NG” was always very generous, mainly in the pressing.
In phases of play, where the opposing defenders had the ball between their feet, Kanté went to press them, like an attacker in a defensive phase. An unusual thing for the 33-year-old French international, who had been left much further back on the pitch with the blue jersey of Chelsea or the French team. But as usual, the man with three lungs was invaluable in defense, releasing a few hot balls when his friends behind were not on the lookout.
With the captain’s armband around his arm for the third time this season, N’Golo Kanté displayed all his technical quality, several times offering a few backheels to his teammates, even in front of his area. Confident, serene, he always knows what to do with the ball. If he is not the player on his team who has touched the ball the most times, each of his transmissions is important and breaks lines.
Except that Kanté is surrounded by players who do not have the same level as him. One action alone can sum up this point, when at the start of the second half, he offers a marvelous pass to his attacker Romarinho from deep. Facing the goalkeeper, the Portuguese misses the mark and fails to offer the Frenchman his seventh assist of the season.
No matter, Kanté continues his efforts, runs and knows how to show himself in all parts of the field. In the 75th minute, we see him once again in front when, launched deep on the left side, he is a few centimeters away from celebrating his return to the French team with a superb goal, he who had already scored four goals, including a magnificent of the head. At the end of the effort, he dribbles past the opposing goalkeeper and tries his luck when the ball is on the verge of leaving the goal line. On his bad foot, the left, he manages to shoot but does not put in the little effect needed to double the lead for his team, who had opened the scoring before the break.
In the end, Al-Ittihad conceded the draw at the end of the match thanks to a quick action from Al-Khaleej, which Kanté was unable to recover from. Al-Ittihad remains fifth and sees its chances of qualifying for the Asian competition fading. But one man on the pitch may have been thinking of other things when the final whistle blew. Turning on his phone in the locker room, he must have discovered the numerous congratulatory messages, almost two years after his last appearance in the blue jersey.
