already qualified, the Blues beat Finland

The Blues had the good taste not to end on a false note. Already qualified for the 2022 World Cup after its festival against Kazakhstan on Saturday (8-0), the French team beat Finland 2-0 in Helsinki on Tuesday, November 16.

Not greatly worried, nor madly inspired, this time she made a copy more than boring with a starting “eleven” reworked against “Eagle Owls” in no hurry to attack. The striker of the Blues, author of the first goal of the meeting, Karim Benzema expressed, at the microphone of TF1, his satisfaction to end the calendar year in style:

“We wanted to finish this last match well while respecting the opponent, so it’s done, with a victory. On a personal level, of course, I’m happy to participate, to score and to win the matches. I am very happy and I hope it will continue. In any case, given the team we have, it must be in our head [la prochaine Coupe du monde], to prepare well and always try to have goals so it’s the World Cup of course ”.

The sporting stake was quite limited for the men of Didier Deschamps, who had made, at the kick-off, five changes compared to the team aligned at the entrance to the Parc des Princes, Saturday, in Paris. Alas, the lucky winners of the evening scored few points for the World Cup in a year in Qatar (November 21 – December 18). Perhaps the most frustrated will be Moussa Diaby. The Bayer Leverkusen striker, tiptoed at the start of the season, had almost no ball to get under his crampons, except for this easily captured recovery, on a center from Lucas Digne (5^e).

Léo Dubois, tenured in the right lane, was forced to leave the field supported by the medical staff, after injuring his right thigh on a defensive fold (43^e). Olympique Lyonnais captain should be unavailable ” a few weeks “, indicated Didier Deschamps after the meeting, and should therefore miss the reception of Marseille, Sunday, in Ligue 1. As for Kurt Zouma, Lucas Digne and Aurélien Tchouaméni, they neither shone nor cracked, in the crowded Olympiastadion from the Finnish capital.

Teemu Pukki, too imprecise against Hugo Lloris

The nearly 32,000 local spectators, who had activated smoke and fireworks in the streets before the meeting, came out disappointed from the historic walls of Helsinki, after being blown away from their place of barrage by Ukraine , victorious in Bosnia-Herzegovina (2-0) at the same time. Their star, Teemu Pukki, for his 100^e selection, gave them some chills (30^e, 33^e, 34^e), but the Norwich forward was either imprecise or blocked by Hugo Lloris.

The fatal cold snap came from the entry of Karim Benzema, spared at kick-off but launched by Deschamps before the hour mark in place of Diaby. And from the start, the Real Madrid center-forward heated the gloves of Lucas Hradecky, the captain of the Owls (58^e), as a warning.

At the 66^e minute, the candidate for the Golden Ball used a subtle deflection in the area of ​​Kylian Mbappé to find the net, a strike slightly deflected by Leo Väisänen (1-0, 66^e). The decisive passer, author of a resounding quadruplet on Saturday against Kazakhstan, then got rid of the same Väisänen in the race before rolling up a nice shot from the right (2-0, 76^e).

Benzema-Mbappé, a “formula that works”

With eight goals scored in the last ten of the French team, in four days, the Benzema-Mbappé duo is indeed “A formula that works”, in the words of Didier Deschamps.

“It seems easy, because they have this technical capacity, the complementarity too. Karim has a formidable efficiency and Kylian confirms the talent he has. For the opponent it’s complicated. I’ll put them in ice cubes to keep them cool! “, maliciously commented on the French coach.

The Blues have ensured, with this success, most of their trip to Finland and can approach the winter with the satisfaction of a duty accomplished, even if the early elimination in the round of 16 of the Euro this summer, facing the Switzerland, after having led to the score 3-1 (3-3, loss on penalties) remains a burden.

“It has been a very positive year for the France team, analyzed Didier Deschamps. If I take away ten minutes which were fatal to us this summer (…) in terms of quality, state of mind, mentality, the France team has again proved that it is very competitive.

The Blues now have a long break of four months before putting on the blue jersey again at the end of March. Antoine Griezmann’s partners could join Qatar at that time to play a few friendly matches, a way to make their mark before defending their title at the end of next year in the Gulf kingdom.