Didier Deschamps is doing well. Thanks for him. His bump in the head owes nothing to the performance of his Blues winners of Germany (1-0) for their debut in this Euro 2021, Tuesday, June 15 in Munich, but to a Greenpeace activist (badly) fallen from the sky in ULM just before kick-off and that a few meters from him.
“By taking refuge with Guy [Stéphan], I hit the bench. I have a small bump, it’s nothing ”, said the coach at a press conference, still a little stunned by what could have turned “To the drama” and caused only two minor injuries. A small miracle.
For the rest, the Basque and his faithful assistant had a great evening. Beating Germany is never an entirely trivial performance. French football has shed too many tears over its past defeats – and cultivated an inferiority complex against the Mannschaft – to be choosy and trivialize the performance.
At the Allianz Arena, the French found a little public – at a reduced dose and size with 14,500 spectators or 22% of normal capacity – but also their good habits: those of reigning world champions. There will always be foodies to say that it lacks a well-defined style, this team is not far from being unplayable when June and its final stages arrive.
Sterile possession for Germany
Three years after its glorious Russian campaign, the France team continues to torment its opponents. Some are convinced that they had control of the match – Belgium at random in the semi-finals of the last World Cup – while they have not mastered much in the background. In the heat of the day, the main players sometimes lack lucidity and some turn simple situations into scoring opportunities. Intentions into realizations.
The Germans are no exception. “We did a lot of what we wanted to do, it was a good game. We controlled the match a lot, we saw very few cons of the French ”, thus ensured after the match Toni Kroos, the metronome of the midfielder. “I would say we weren’t the worst team”, Joshua Kimmich added. Maybe, but not the best either.
The Bayern Munich player can always argue that a draw would have been fairer and why not favorable to Franco-German friendship, the field does not bother with merit. Especially when it is based mainly on the numbers of an often sterile possession of the ball like this interminable pass to ten of three minutes at the very start of the match.
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