Kylian Mbappe marked his first game as France captain on Friday with two goals and an assist as the World Cup finalists romped to a 4-0 win against a depleted Netherlands side in a Euro 2024 qualifier in Paris.
Mbappe has succeeded long-standing France skipper Hugo
Lloris and the new era got off to a flying start as the Paris Saint-Germain
superstar set up the pink-haired Antoine Griezmann to score inside two minutes.
Dayot Upamecano bundled in the second goal in the eighth
minute and Mbappe got his name on the scoresheet to make it 3-0 before the
midway point in the first half.
Mbappe wrapped up the victory in emphatic fashion with two
minutes remaining, before the Netherlands’ Memphis Depay had a stoppage-time
penalty saved by goalkeeper Mike Maignan.
It was a display of ruthless efficiency from Didier
Deschamps’ side against a Dutch team missing several key players after a virus
swept through their squad.
They can at least console themselves in the knowledge that
their toughest assignment in qualifying Group B is out of the way and their
next game is at home to Gibraltar on Monday.
The French now head to Dublin to play the Republic of
Ireland but it is going to take something remarkable for them to fail to
qualify for next year’s Euro given the top two teams in each group go through.
This was France’s first game since their World Cup final
defeat on penalties by Argentina just over three months ago.
There were four changes to Deschamps’ team from that game,
with Lloris and centre-back Raphael Varane having retired -– they were honoured
on the Stade de France pitch before kick-off -– while Ousmane Dembele is
injured and Olivier Giroud started on the bench.
In came AC Milan’s Maignan in goal and Liverpool’s Ibrahima
Konate in central defence, while there were starts for Kingsley Coman and
Randal Kolo Muani, two players who came off the bench in the Doha final.
The Netherlands, with Ronald Koeman back for a second spell as
coach, were without Cody Gakpo, Matthijs de Ligt, Sven Botman, Denzel Dumfries
and Frenkie de Jong for a variety of reasons.
Ruthless efficiency
France simply blew them away in an astonishing start.
Mbappe has promised to play a unifying role for his country
after taking over the armband, although he also admitted that Griezmann was
disappointed at being overlooked for the captaincy by Deschamps.
Usually when Mbappe gets the ball on the left side of the
box he shapes to shoot towards the far corner.
That he didn’t in the second minute was telling, as he
instead chose to play a square pass for the arriving Griezmann to finish
first-time.
Griezmann, reprising the midfield role he operated so
remarkably at the World Cup, then set up the second.
His whipped free-kick from the right was not properly dealt
with by Dutch goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen, and Bayern Munich defender Upamecano
was left with an easy finish.
There was a touch of real class about the third goal as Kolo
Muani’s decision not to touch Aurelien Tchouameni’s through ball completely did
for the Netherlands defence and left Mbappe through to beat the goalkeeper.
France were 3-0 up with barely 30 percent possession, and
Koeman made a substitution before half-time, replacing Ajax midfielder Kenneth
Taylor with Manchester United target man Wout Weghorst.
Only a fine Cillessen save from a Konate header stopped
France from scoring again before the break, and substitute Moussa Diaby then
had a goal disallowed late on.
However, Mbappe sealed the win two minutes from time,
pouncing on a loose ball before firing a shot through the legs of Jurrien
Timber and into the bottom corner.
The evening concluded with Maignan stopping Depay’s penalty,
which had been awarded for an Upamecano handball.
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