The wise old people will tell you: you should never trivialize a victory against Brazil. Even if the latter is a little difficult to see, with the quality of the squad in free fall due, among other things, to a talent pool which is visibly drying up as we explained to you on Thursday. We are therefore not going to complain about having seen our Blues win (2-1) at Gillette Stadium, in the suburbs of Boston, the same place where they will face Norway in the third group match this summer.
Especially since this success was acquired in numerical inferiority from the 50th minute after a half-gross, half-clumsy mistake from Dayot “the big sabots” Upamecano, which caused him to return to the locker room prematurely. His teammates then led relatively quietly since Kylian Mbappé’s great opening score in the first period, which came within one goal of Giroud’s selection record (56 vs 57). The Madrilenian, perfectly launched in depth by quarterback Ousmane Dembélé, settled Ederson with a superb dive ball to conclude a relatively good first period.
“You always have to enjoy beating Brazil”
But with this tricolor red card, the Brazilians will do nothing, or very little. And it is even the Blues, more inspired and sharp on the counter-attack, who will make the break at the hour mark at the end of a new nice collective movement concluded by another equally subtle dive, that of Hugo Ekitike, receiving a beautiful deep pass from Michael Olise, as enterprising as it is elegant on Thursday evening. The Brazilians will still end up breaking through the French barrier in the last quarter of an hour, following an off-center free kick poorly negotiated by the French defense, without this generating any spirit of revolt in the Seleçao.
“We had a very good first period with a very good technical relationship, with the four attacking players and a midfielder who had good control. Afterwards, with ten, you need qualities and we knew how to defend well. This is a very good thing. This does not assure us anything for the future but we must always enjoy beating Brazil,” underlined Didier Deschamps at a press conference after the match.
On arrival, this short success only confirms the inverted form curves between a French team with offensive talents bordering on indecency and a Brazil which one wonders how it will do in two months to hope to bring back a sixth star on the jersey, having not reached the last four of a World Cup since… 2002.
“There is interesting offensive potential but it’s not all about accumulating individualities,” the French coach tempered. What I liked, beyond the technical relationship, is the fact of being more difficult for the opponent to read because the attackers do not have a fixed position. Ousmane (Dembélé), I don’t want him to be on the right, and Hugo (Ekitike) stuck to the line. »
Mbappé in good shape, can do better in defense
Deschamps was finally pleased to see his captain Mbappé back in great shape despite his recent physical problems with his knee. “Kylian no longer has pain and discomfort. He has lots of desire and fire in his legs,” greeted the technician, who also specified that he was going to rotate his team extensively during the second meeting of the tour, Sunday, against Colombia in Landover (Maryland). “It’s planned, it’s the moment, I want to see as many players as possible in the second match,” he said. We should therefore be able to see in particular a certain Rayan Cherki, who will be keen to show that he does not intend to go to the United States this summer to count donuts.
And if everything was not perfect on Thursday – we are thinking in particular of the defense, whether on the wings with unfinished performances from Malo Gusto on the right and Théo Hernandez on the left, or in the axis with a Konaté-Upamecano hinge not always very comfortable technically, this trial run remains overall a success for the reigning vice-world champions, in search of a third star this summer in the land of the tall peroxide blond.
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