Didier Deschamps’ France deliver a new ‘Bleusprint’
How very…German.
Joachim Low might just have been sat at home watching on and displaying a wry smile as France, dispensing with Uruguay, marched on to a World Cup semi-final for the first time in 12 years.
Four years ago at this very stage, Didier Deschamps’ side were undone by a relatively simple German set-piece and couldn’t rise again in a generally pedestrian contest that couldn’t hit the heights of the tournament that hosted it.
Yesterday in Nizhny Novgorod, Deschamps flipped that game on its head and carried the lessons learned four years forward to his and his country’s advantage.
Let’s call it Les Bleusprint.
France now race on to Saint Petersburg, the first side into the last four of this World Cup. They head there secure in the knowledge that they can win ugly. Well, they knew that much after the group stages when they largely stunk it up against Australia and Peru and came away with six points. Now they know they can win ugly in the knockout stages too.
They shouldn’t need to, of course — the talent that brims and bubbles through this brilliant young team should make them a bewitching outfit every time. Not just the odd time. Against Argentina in the last 16, they were just that.
Not here.
Yet four years ago in Brazil, Germany had their own slow marches through parts of a tournament they would go on to be feted for winning. Deschamps remembered it well as he raced on to the pitch at full time yesterday.
He ran to Pogba first, the midfielder terrific throughout but almost spoiling it by getting needlessly involved in a skirmish near the end when just a booking away from missing the semi-final. Next, Deschamps made a beeline for Raphael Varane. The Real Madrid defender had shut down Uruguay for much of the day but his most telling contribution came at the other end when he stole in front of a powder blue posse to flick Antoine Griezmann’s devilish free kick past Fernando Muslera.
GOAL France#URU 0-1 #FRA
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) July 6, 2018
40mins: Raphael Varane heads home to open the scoring for France.#RTEsoccer
Updates: https://t.co/aAHvF5QO3X pic.twitter.com/ZGikzPktjD
It was Varane who had been beaten by Mats Hummels for the only goal at the Maracanã four years ago, from a remarkably similar set piece.
“I’m very happy for Raphael,” said Deschamps. “He has four years of experience. All of these players have grown. They have maturity. That’s what I told him at the end of the match. I had also suffered in that [Germany] match four years ago. This is football. It’s in the tough times that you learn the most.”
Yesterday’s match was, for the most part, a tough watch. So, if Deschamps is correct, we should have learned plenty.
We learned that Uruguay stripped of one half of their attacking partnership are a vastly less threatening prospect. When a low delivery flashed across Hugo Lloris’s goal just four minutes in and French defenders dawdled, you could only imagine Edinson Cavani’s thoughts as he watched on from the bench.
We learned that the Pogba-Ngolo Kante base of France’s midfield may be the best axis at the tournament as they grow in authority and understanding. As France struggled to break down Uruguay early on, Pogba picked and pulled and persisted, passing neatly through the middle and linking brilliantly with Griezmann. Kante, who Pogba lovingly refers to as ’15 lungs’, burst every one of them throughout.
We learned Kylian Mbappe can’t win every game on his own. He blistered out of the box here on the back of his breakout for the ages against Argentina last time out. But he was well shackled by a Uruguay team who do that better than most. In what should be a more open semi-final, the teenager may find more room for magic.
We learned that Muslera will never have a worse moment in international football than the one that came on 61 minutes here. When Pogba pick-pocketed Matias Vecino on the halfway line, green expanses opened before him. The Manchester United man strode into them with the authority he exudes when at his very best.
He eschewed the option of a shot to instead slip a delicious ball inside to Corentin Tolisso who fed Griezmann. The Atletico Madrid man’s shot should never have troubled Muslera, a veteran of 102 internationals, but he inexplicably flapped at it and saw it slide past him.
GOAL France #URU 0-2 #FRA
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) July 6, 2018
A howler from the Uruguay keeper Fernando Muslera as Antoine Griezmann makes it 2-0 to France.#RTEsoccer
Updates: https://t.co/aAHvF5QO3X pic.twitter.com/9QsDL4y4dq
Coming at the same end as Willy Caballero’s clanger, made a mess of Argentina’s World Cup, the goalkeepers union will not miss Nizhny Novgorod.
For his part, Oscar Tabarez said afterwards that he had learned nothing new about his team in defeat.
After 12 years at the helm, there is little he doesn’t know about his men. With trademark eloquence, he spoke about ‘dreaming new dreams’ but stopped short of confirming whether his own journey at the helm of the national team is likely to come to an end now.
The end has not yet come for France. That much we do certainly know.
In Saint Petersburg on Tuesday night, we’ll find out plenty more.
Muslera 4; Caceres 5, Gimenez 5, Godin 6, Laxalt 5; Nandez 5 (Urretaviscaya 73), Torreira 5, Bentancur 4 (Rodriguez 59), Vecino 5; Suarez 6, Stuani 4 (Gomez 59 4).
Lloris 8; Pavard 7, Varane 8, Umtiti 6, Hernandez 7; Pogba 8, Kante 8; Mbappe 6 (Dembele 88), Griezmann 7 (Fekir 90), Tolisso 7 (Nzonzi 80); Giroud 6.
Nestor Pitana (Argentina).
43,319.
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