This match was exciting. There were a lot of changes in the French squad compared to their previous match but the most important one was the absence of Mbappe, he caught the coronavirus and will now remain in quarantine until he is cured.
Besides Mbappe, other important French players that didn't participate were Varane, Giroud, and Rabiot. World champions such as Pogba, Umtiti, or Dembele weren't even included in the list for these 2 matches.
On the other hand, a new promising player who is just 17 years old named Camavinga was able to play for around 30 minutes and he was very good. This player will surely be the midfielder leader for France in a handful of years. His future looks promising and next season he will be playing for one of the biggest clubs, so far I have read that both Real Madrid and PSG want him for next year.
Given the fact Portugal scored 4 goals against Croatia and CR7 wasn't even on the pitch in that game, I was hoping for France to do the same today, and hopefully even more goals. They just scored 4 which was fine by me and the 2 goals from Croatia made the match a very entertaining one.
Croatia was actually the first team to score and they were playing better than France in the first 45 minutes but France's strikers have good aim and are technically superior. In the final 3 minutes of the first half, without the team deserving it, they scored 2 good goals. This certainly was an emotional hit to Croatia but it was still to soon to call it a defeat.
The second half started with France feeling a bit more confident, the funny thing about football is that emotions and confidence can change hands in a matter of seconds. After a weird individual play from a Croatian player, they managed to score their second goal and tie the match. At that moment, the tie was a fair result.
As was already proved in the World Cup with excellent header goals from Varane and Umtiti in important matches, this is a team that can easily score from a free kick or from the corner. They have at least 4 central defensive players that are excellent headers, the 2 I just mentioned as well as Upamecano and Lenglet. These 2 were the ones playing this match and Upamecano scored an excellent header after a corner kick from Griezmann. That was the third goal, the last one came from a silly penalty scored by Giroud after the ball touched the hand of a Croatian player.
France continues to be better than Croatia just as in the last World Cup and this shouldn't be a surprise for anyone. In my last article about France, I mentioned that Giroud was too old to give a reliable performance in the next European Championship and World Cup so it was interesting to see France's attack without him. Ben Yedder played the first 60 minutes of the match and Giroud the last 30 minutes and there wasn't much difference in the performance.
Ben Yedder has a fine touch that can be of big help in creating combinations with Mbappe and Griezmann. Martial, on the other hand, played in the position of Mbappe and he had a good match but it is clear Mbappe is on another level. Mbappe is faster, has better aim, and is a little bit better in drilling.
The other important match of the day was between Portugal and Sweden. CR7 was able to play this match, he scored 2 incredible goals, and he now has a total of 101 goals for Portugal which is a record for European countries. The exciting match between France and Portugal will be next month and the French probably wish for some revenge after losing the 2016 European Championship against Portugal in their own country.
What's next for European football is the beginning of all the major leagues in the next few weeks.