With Mbappé or without Mbappé this France does not fall in love. And she doesn’t win either. Yesterday he found himself unable to beat a Poland that appeared at the event with the sole task of defending its pride before the 30,000 compatriots who cheered it on. The setback that resulted in the draw and Austria’s victory against the Netherlands have relegated the current world runner-up to second place in the group. This takes her to the side of the square through which Spain circulates. If England finishes second in their group, they will also go for that flank that has been poisoned by the French setback and the Austrian feat.
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Mike Maignan, Jules Koundé, William Saliba, Dayot Upamecano, Théo Hernández, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Adrien Rabiot, N’Golo Kanté, Ousmane Dembélé, Kylian Mbappé, Bradley Barcola, Antoine Griezmann (N’Golo Kanté, min. 60), Olivier Giroud (Bradley Barcola, min. 60), Eduardo Camavinga (Adrien Rabiot, min. 60), Youssouf Fofana (Aurélien Tchouaméni, min. 80) and Randal Kolo Muani (Ousmane Dembélé, min. 85)
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Lukasz Skorupski, Nicola Zalewski, Jakub Kiwior, Jan Bednarek, Przemyslaw Frankowski, Pawel Dawidowicz, Jakub Moder, Sebastian Szymanski, Piotr Zielinski, Kacper Urbanski, Robert Lewandowski, Michal Skóras (Nicola Zalewski, min. 67) and Karol Swiderski (Sebastian Szymanski, min. 67)
Goals
1-0 min. 55: Kylian Mbappe. 1-1 min. 78: Lewandowski
Referee Marco Guida
Yellow cards
Nicola Zalewski (min. 23), Rabiot (min. 42), Dawidowicz (min. 88), Swiderski (min. 91)
Didier Deschamps has not managed to get his footballers to express the superiority that is assumed of them. France has left three inane games in this group stage in which it has only been able to score two goals, one from a penalty, yesterday’s from Mbappé and the Austrian Wober’s own goal. The balance is meager for a team that a priori has an enviable arsenal.
France has no goal, but neither is a game. He worked against the battle-hardened Poland with spasms of Mbappé, Dembélé or Barcola. It was Dembélé who started hot. On the fourth pass he placed a low cross that Theo Hernández caught at the far post. Skorupski, with his foot, announced the inspired afternoon he had. There is probably no winger on the entire international scene who wins one-on-one more times and wastes them more with a bad cross or a stunted shot. One of those drives in which Kanté looks like a mini tunnel boring machine that drills lines with the ball attached to his foot was completed by Dembélé himself against the body of the Polish goalkeeper.
After that occasion France got stuck. Even Maignan was threatened after a tepid Zielinski cross was headed home by Lewandowski. Half an inch was missing for it to be a goal.
Without Griezmann, who was given a rest by Deschamps, the blue They couldn’t find anyone to set up the game. The break due to the 30 degrees and the righteous heat became more like a basketball timeout than a space for refreshments. Deschamps, upset by his team’s play, formed a circle to give instructions.
Mbappé came out more active from the break. Until that moment he had occupied the center of the attack and avoided clashes. He did the same on corner kicks, where he took refuge at the far post to avoid the hornet’s nest of blows and contacts that occur in the heart of the area. It was from his partnership with Barcola where he was able to get close to scoring. First with a wall and then with a back heel from his PSG teammate. In both cases Skorupski covered the spaces well with his stick.
From the break, a sharper France emerged and was willing to sink its teeth into the tough and orderly Poland. In this section, Mbappé was seen willing to exercise his leadership. He went to the top of the area to get two of his bagels. One narrowly missed and the other was repelled by Skorupski. France launched, she took the lead after Dembélé was tripped when he stepped into the area. Mbappé chose a corner to score his first goal in a European Championship. Like when La Marseillaise played, he took off the mask that protects his battered nose. He doesn’t seem to like that the protector they have designed for him is part of the image of him in the most emotional moments.
With the wind behind the lead on the scoreboard, Deschamps retired Kanté, Rabiot and Barcola with half an hour remaining. Griezmann, Camavinga and Giroud came on, whom the French fans had been calling for since the start of the second half. Deschamps’ maneuver collapsed France. Dispensing with Kanté and Rabiot, their two best guardians of matches with tight scores, destroyed the defensive scaffolding of the blue.
The French collapse gave way to an emboldened Poland that began to surround Maignan’s area until Upamecano took the penalty from Swiderski after the VAR called the referee to see the shot in which he initially saw no foul. It was Lewandowski who was in charge of executing it. He had to do it twice, because Maignan stopped him the first time for not keeping his foot behind the goal line before hitting. The second time, Lewandowski did not forgive and condemned France to be second in the group.
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