Football Les Bleus exhausted and without a victory in June … The top flops of France-Croatia


The flops

Four matches, zero wins

We imagined the Blues capable of finishing their fourth and final qualifying match in the League of Nations on a high note, but they did not do better than in previous meetings. No wins, two home defeats and only two points on the clock. We are not far from zero points! The Blues will not defend their title in the “Final 4” in June 2023, and it will even be necessary to fight with Austria to avoid the wooden spoon and relegation to League B in the last two matches of September.

Nkunku – Benzema – Mbappé, a blow for nothing

We waited with some impatience to see the new offensive association of the Blues at work, with the integration of Nkunku, but this remains only a promise, since the three men did not combine enough against a Croatian defense which knew how to frame them very well. Mbappé was the most dangerous, but sometimes abusing the individual game to make differences. The Blues, who had always scored in their 23 previous matches (51 goals), came up short this time.

No more juice and no more ideas

It’s a fact, the Blues were physically rinsed, and this gathering has further undermined the organizations. The League of Nations is a competition that had been able to seduce, but this sequence of four matches in eleven days in a calendar shaken up because of the World Cup in winter, made no sense. Too many changes from one match to another, badly assumed game systems, but the pensum is over. It’s the holidays for the Blues. Next meeting in September.

The tops

The Croats deserved it

Croatia had never beaten the Blues in nine matches since 1998 (3 draws, 6 defeats), well it’s done. Modric’s teammates controlled the match well, managing to keep their opponents at bay with mastery. The good defensive organization, the ball outings of Modric or Brozovic, the thrusts of Brekalo in the first period, or Majer in the second, like the constant calls from Budimir, put the Blues in trouble. Croatia is 2nd in the group (7 points) and can still compete with Denmark for the place in the “Final 4”.

A happy Stade de France all the same

Certainly the Stade de France will not have vibrated for a victory, it even remained unsatisfied, since no goal from Mbappé or Benzema came to release an audience, which was nevertheless ready to ignite. The “olas” and the encouragement did nothing. A downside, the whistles for Guendouzi, the “Marseillais” when he left the field, when he was replaced by Griezmann.



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