AB GhaylaneThe French team has largely won, thanks to a double of Kylian Mbappé and a goal of Olivier Giroud (5-0), Tuesday in Lille.
Kylian Mbappé was hungry. It showed, and the Pierre-Mauroy stadium was delighted. In front of the 48,120 spectators present, Tuesday 29 March in Lille, for this friendly match between the French team and South Africa (5-0), the Paris Saint-Germain striker put aside the first days of this March gathering. Past the controversy around his boycott of marketing operations, past this ENT infection that prevented him from playing against the Ivory Coast in Marseille. Now it’s time to get back to the pitch.
Didier Deschamps had anticipated the desire of his player to fight and therefore left him on the field until the end of the game. It was a good thing. At 2-0, after having already done everything in the first half, Mbappé went to bury the meager hopes of South Africa. A penalty provoked, then transformed (76th). A 26th goal in Blue, two units from the top 10 of the best scorers in the history of the French team. Packed, it is weighed.
Before that, Mbappé had already started the first one for Les Bleus. We play the 23rd minute of this friendly match when Antoine Griezmann finds Mbappé at the back post. The cross is long, far from being easy to negotiate. But the Paris Saint-Germain striker gives a magic wand with a sublime curled shot. The ball ends in the opposite corner. The whole thing was stopped. The French team is leading and it is an understatement to say that the whole Pierre-Mauroy stadium felt the goal of Mbappé was coming as big as a house.
Because the striker did everything alone during the first half-hour. And always with the sense of collective. For nearly thirty minutes, Mbappé played the role of Griezmann in the pass, Giroud in the finish and particle gas pedal … to Mbappé. Enough to make the public shiver on each touch of the ball, each acceleration, and enough to pull his teammates up. Follow the boss, it is he who guides.
In the second half, Mbappé still felt bad about it. Twice, he could have scored one more goal. But twice, he fell on a very good Ronwen Williams, the keeper of South Africa (52nd, 63rd). The score could have been much wider in favor of the French without the saves of Williams in front of Lucas Digne (38th, 64th) and Olivier Giroud (6th, 54th).
OMG Wow 🤩, Kylian Mbappe with a beautiful goal for France against South Africa 🇿🇦 what a beautiful curl to the top hand of the goal. The PSG man has been electric in this game, he’s absolutely world class. #PSG pic.twitter.com/VdzjkMZckQ
— footballnews (@footynews34) March 29, 2022
The number 9 of the French team, once again titular by Didier Deschamps on Tuesday when he was not initially supposed to participate in the gathering, will not leave this evening frustrated. He came close to Thierry Henry’s record of goals for the French team. After taking advantage of Griezmann’s laser-like opening – his second assist of the night – Giroud showed incredible composure in the box to score his 48th goal for Les Bleus (33rd), three shy of Henry’s 51 goals.
After these two games, it seems unthinkable that Giroud will not be back in the squad for the next round of matches in June. Absent since the Euro, the AC Milan striker turned the situation around in less than a week and could even have scored twice early in the second half if not for the intervention of the South African goalkeeper. He was served by Jonathan Clauss, the player from Lens, who was playing for his second team, his first as a starter for Lille.
Sometimes whistled, sometimes cheered by the Pierre-Mauroy stadium before leaving under the ovations of the public, Clauss was enterprising and will certainly be one of the novelties of this French team to be reviewed in three months for the beginning of the Nations League.
3 – M. Maignan, J. Clauss et W. Saliba vont fêter leur 1re titularisation en équipe de France ce soir. C'est la 1re fois qu'au moins 3 joueurs fêtent leur 1re titu en Bleus lors d'un même match depuis juin 2019 v Andorre (Lenglet, Zouma, Dubois, Ben Yedder). Baptême. #FRAAFS https://t.co/8d8pQnffuZ
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) March 29, 2022
Just like Mattéo Guendouzi, author of his first goal for France at the very end of the game (90th+2) with a nice shot from the edge of the box. Until then, Deschamps still has time to think about how to refine his system, far from being in trouble today against a very weak South African opposition, which finished with ten against eleven after the expulsion of Khuliso Mudau (85th).
There are still some areas of work to be done, especially in the attack and the contribution of the substitutes. Even if Wissam Ben Yedder, who came on as a substitute, scored late in the game (82nd) for his third goal with Les Bleus – his first in nearly three years with the national team – his ability to make a difference in the course of the game remains to be demonstrated. The same goes for Christopher Nkunku and Moussa Diaby. In the meantime, Les Bleus will find Karim Benzema and will be able to count on a Kylian Mbappé far from being exhausted. It promises.
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