An Andrej Kramaric penalty goal with seven minutes to go prevented France from claiming their first win in this edition of the League of Nations, after drawing 1-1 on Monday in their visit to Croatia, in a clash in which, despite the draw, the French team showed the quality and depth of their squad.
Circumstance that led Didier Deschamps, despite the unexpected defeat (1-2) conceded last Friday in Paris against Denmark, to present a new eleven at the Poljud stadium in Split, where only the young midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni repeated as a starter.
The ten changes introduced by the French coach not only did not diminish the competitiveness of the Gallic team, but they seemed to give new energy to the “bleus”. And it is that players like Christopher Nkunku or Moussa Diaby seem to want to make things difficult for the French coach when it comes to making the list of players who will attend the Qatar World Cup next November.
In fact, the partnership made up of Nkunku and Diaby was the main source of danger for the French team, who after an irregular start to the match gradually took control of the match. An improvement that France was unable to transfer to the scoreboard in the first half because of Croatian goalkeeper Dominic Livakovic, who deprived Diaby of the 0-1 after 39 minutes after resolving with a good intervention the shot of the German Bayer Leverkusen attacker.
It did end up in the net, although it did not go up to the scoreboard due to a millimetric offside, a few minutes before a shot by Nkunku, after a sensational filtered pass by Diaby. But finally nothing could stop the French team from getting ahead on the scoreboard, thanks to a goal in the 52nd minute by Adrien Rabiot, who resolved with quality a deep pass by Wissam Ben Yedder that allowed the Juventus player to reach the rival area completely alone.
A goal that seemed to be enough for France, which left Karim Benzema and Kylian Mbappé on the bench, to take the victory, until an inopportune penalty from Jonathan Clauss, who had entered the field just a few minutes before, allowed Croatia definitely equalize the contest (1-1) with seven minutes to go. Score that condemned the French and Croatians, who fell by a clear 0-3 against Austria on the first day, to place themselves in the classification of group 1 of League A behind the Danish team, which won 1-2 to the Austrian team in Vienna.
A duel that began an hour and a half late as a result of the power cut that occurred in the surroundings of the Ernst Happel stadium in the Austrian capital. Setback that did not seem to affect the Danish team, semi-finalist of the last European Championship, which took the lead after 28 minutes on the scoreboard (0-1) with a goal from English Tottenham midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
A goal that was answered by the Austrian team, led by former Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick, in the second half with a goal by Xaver Schlager who did not miss an error in the exit of the ball by the Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel to sign at 67 minutes 1-1.
Equal that the Austrian team could undo eight minutes later in a shot by striker Marko Arnautovic that crashed into the post, but when everything seemed in favor of the locals came the victory goal (1-2) for the Danish team, which He took all three points with a spectacular shot from outside the box by Italian Udinese player Jens Stryger Larsen in the 84th minute of play.
Other results
For its part, in League B the Icelandic team could not get through at home to the draw (1-1) against Albania, in a clash in which the visitors took the lead on the scoreboard after half an hour of play with a striker Taulant Seferi’s goal. A surprising result that Iceland managed to wipe away four minutes into the second half with a goal from Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson, which established the definitive 1-1 that allows the Nordics to lead group 2, albeit with one more game than Albania and Israel .
The one who could not avoid the surprise was Slovakia, which fell unexpectedly on Monday 0-1 against Kazakhstan, who won their visit to Trnva with a goal from Aslan Darabayev after 26 minutes of play. A victory that allowed Kazakhstan, which accounts for its games by victories, to position itself as the undisputed leader of group 3 of League C, with a three-point advantage over Slovakia and five over Belarus and Azerbaijan, who drew 0-0 in the match played in the Serbian town of Novi Sad.
For its part, in League D, the Latvian team established itself in first place in group 1, after chaining its second consecutive victory by beating Liechtenstein 1-0 on Monday with a goal from midfielder Arturs Zjuzins in the 73rd minute , while Andorra and Moldova could not pass the scoreless draw.
EFE
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