Logical result: the French team obtained, Sunday March 28, in Kazakhstan the victory (2-0) that it had come to seek, during its second qualifying match for the 2022 World Cup. Facing the adversary a priori the weakest in Group D, this success places the Blues at the top of the provisional classification, after a disappointing result at home against Ukraine (1-1), Wednesday March 24 – and pending the result, Sunday evening, of match between Ukraine and Finland.
In the city of Nursoultan (formerly Astana), new name for the capital of Kazakhstan, Ousmane Dembélé (20e) and a goal against his camp from Sergei Maliy (44e) made it possible to ensure what was the union minimum in 122e world nation in FIFA ranking.
Neither the 4,700 kilometers of journey, nor the cold, nor the synthetic turf, nor the time difference (4 hours) have drawn a fault in the block designed by Didier Deschamps. The coach had chosen to rotate his squad, with nine changes from the starting lineup against Ukraine in the Blues’ first game on the road to Qatar.
Ousmane Dembélé, holder for the first time in nearly two and a half years, has benefited the most by showing himself available and active. In his usual blasting style, the Barcelona opened the scoring with a cross strike with his right foot, ideally served by Anthony Martial.
He had previously sent the first shivers down the Kazakhs’ low block with a series of dribbles before serving his Barcelona partner Antoine Griezmann, who saw his strike blocked.
After his thirty minutes against Ukraine, the former Rennais scored points to find a place in the group that will play the next Euro, from mid-June. “Ousmane Dembélé can bring a lot to this team, I take him under my wing, always to boost him”, greeted the “big brother” of the Blues, Paul Pogba, who is recovering from an injury and who took advantage of the match to glean sixty minutes of playing time.
Mbappé misses a penalty
For the defense, and the central hinge composed by Kurt Zouma and Clément Lenglet, lined up together for the third time, it will surely be necessary to pass a test again, Kazakhstan having crossed the center line too few times …
The selection of Central Asia even helped the Blues, with a goal against their own camp, headed by Maliy, on a corner from Antoine Griezmann just before the break. This saved the Blues from living a second half under the threat of a twist of fate, like the one that had allowed Ukraine to equalize.
But the French should certainly have done more, and in particular Kylian Mbappé, who entered the 59e minute. The Parisian, criticized for his lackluster performance on Wednesday, missed a penalty, stopped by Aleksandr Mokin, who started on the right side (75e). The goalkeeper had interposed earlier (70e) on a first attempt by the Parisian.
After this seventh consecutive away win, with a 1990 and 1991 record equaled, Didier Deschamps’ team will travel to Sarajevo on Wednesday. Against Bosnia-Herzegovina, it will be for the Blues to prove that they can keep the first place in their group until the end.