Lucky Les Bleus
Vertonghen’s own goal sends France into Euro quarters
F COURSE, it wasn’t pretty. Didier Deschamps won’t care. All that matters, the French coach would strenuously argue, is that they got
Domenico Tedesco seemed intent on outdoing Deschamps in the dourness stakes.
France have more than enough talent to build play in the most elaborate and expressive of ways. Just not under this manager.
Here, it seemed to result in Mbappe constantly running into blind alleys, blocked off by at least two defenders every time. That is, however, what you get when you base your midfield around industry rather than innovation.
Belgium did have plenty of the latter in De Bruyne, but he didn’t have enough around him. It meant one of the game’s great driving midfielders, perhaps the best passer in modern football, was largely reduced to safe balls at the base of midfield.
France are going to be very hard to beat. They just make actually winning very hard work, too. They are almost the modern equivalent of Germany in the 1980s and 1990s.
They aren’t a side everyone is rushing to watch but they have the level of resolve that means they regularly make the latter rounds.
They have already gone one better here than in the last Euros, where they lost to Switzerland in the last 16. That shouldn’t be forgotten in all the knowing commentary about how Deschamps knows how to win tournaments, either.
He’s only lifted one trophy as manager, and that despite overseeing probably the most talented squad of all over a decade.
More pressure should be on. Maybe it illustrates the limits of this approach. The next round will dictate a lot. France, however, won’t necessarily be all that interested in dictating play. – The Independent