A shower of goals, a record and a first place in the pocket: the French team made short work of the modest Gibraltar (14-0), signing the biggest success in its history to achieve the status of seeded at Euro 2024, Saturday. Already qualified for the European Championship (June 14-July 14 in Germany), the Blues had one last mission to complete in Group B, to avoid unpleasant surprises during the draw for the competition on December 2 in Hamburg.
But facing one of the weakest nations on the planet, 198th in the FIFA rankings, this task was a real walk in the park in Nice for the vice-world champions.
The France-Azerbaijan goals record erased
If France had performed the minimum service in the first leg in September (3-0), this time it played the game to the fullest to the great misfortune of its opponent, asphyxiated from the start and reduced to ten almost immediately. This historic demonstration, which erases from the shelves the 10-0 inflicted on Azerbaijan in 1995 in Auxerre, will add nothing to the glory of Didier Deschamps’ troops, as the gap in level is abysmal between the two teams. But the coach is not one to shy away from his pleasure and will have appreciated the seriousness of his players, who recorded a 7th success in as many matches in this qualifying phase before the final meeting, Tuesday in Greece.
With such domination, almost everyone joined in the fun. The unfortunate Ethan Santos opened the ball against his camp (3rd) before the second goal for the French team from Marcus Thuram (4th), followed by Warren Zaire-Emery (16th), Kylian Mbappé (30th from the penalty spot, 74th, 82nd) , Jonathan Clauss (34th), Kingsley Coman (36th, 65th), Youssouf Fofana (37th), Adrien Rabiot (63rd), Ousmane Dembélé (73rd) and Olivier Giroud (88th, 90th+1), more than ever the best gunner of the Blues (56).
Doubles galore
An avalanche of goals and chances, which delighted the Allianz Riviera public, even if it will be difficult to draw conclusions from this game between two countries not playing in the same category. The debate on the identity of the number 9 of the Blues has therefore not really progressed: we will have to see Thuram, preferred to Randal Kolo Muani at kick-off, in other circumstances to get an idea of his level on the international scene and whether he is more suited to occupy the position than the currently disappointing PSG striker. Especially since the indestructible Giroud showed with his double that he was far from finished at 37 years old.
Mbappé took the opportunity to improve his statistics. With his hat-trick, including a magnificent lob of more than 40 m, the French captain brought his total in the selection to 46. Coman also wandered down the right side and gave Gibraltar’s poor defense headaches by being at the origin of many occasions.
Zaire-Emery, youngest scorer in the history of the Blues
For Warren Zaire-Emery, the attraction of this last gathering of the year, the meeting had a more bitter taste. The Parisian midfielder, aligned from the start, became at 17 years, eight months and 10 days the youngest player to play in the French team since the First World War. And his fairy tale continued with a first achievement after a nice raid and an exchange with Coman. But the PSG prodigy was cut down by Santos, sent off in the action, and had to give way to Fofana after 20 minutes due to an injury to his right ankle.
But nothing to spoil the party and the festival of the Blues, impressive in power and efficiency during an evening which will go down in history.