Results France vs Croatia today 9/9 Nations League 2020/21

Final result: France 4-2 Croatia

Croatia: Lovren (16); Brekalo (55)

On the Swedish pitch in the opening match of the 2020/21 UEFA Nations League, France had to rely on Kylian Mbappé’s timing to win 3 full points (1-0). Even so, even Mbappé’s goal was thanks to luck. That tough victory exposed some French problems at this point.

Deschamps’ machine is clearly still quite slow after 10 months of not concentrating and the 2018 World Cup champion is quite far from his true level. The problem with Les Bleus lies as much in the people as in the game. The 3-5-2 diagram (with 3-4-1-2 variation) lacks smooth and sharp operation.

This diagram always requires two highly mobile and potentially mutating right wingers, but both Leo Dubois and Lucas Digne are too confident to play against Sweden. Therefore, it is entirely understandable when it comes to the game against Croatia, Ferland Mendy (Real Madrid) is willing to take over the left wing and Moussa Sissoko, Tottenham’s midfielder, is in charge of the opposite wing.

Also, the ability to make the ball from midfield is not good either. The N’Golo Kante and Adrien Rabiot couple are very mobile and powerful, but not sharp passers like Paul Pogba or Houssem Aouar (both absent due to Covid-19 infection). However, Kante remains on hold to secure the midfield fight while Steven Nzonzi (previously at Sevilla, Roma and currently at Rennes) to replace Rabiot.

In attack, Mbappé could not really play due to an ankle injury in the game against Sweden and Giroud was sitting on the bench. Two names selected to play for Griezmann are Anthony Martial from MU and Ben Yedder from Monaco.

As for Croatia, the defending world runner-up (they lost to the French themselves 2-4 in the 2018 World Cup final) lost to Portugal 1-4 in the first match of the 2020/21 UEFA Nations League. After the game, coach Zlatko Dalic openly expressed his anger at the superficial attitude of the players and the whole team quickly held a review meeting to revive the team.

Of course, coach Dalic made some adjustments to change the face of Croatia. Marcelo Brozovic and Ivan Perisic, who had a break against Portugal after a tense season at Inter and Bayern, started early against France. On defense, only midfielder Lovren (Liverpool) is retained and three new names are relied upon, including Uremovic, Caleta-Car, Melnjak, who have little international experience.

While everyone knows the two main forces, Luka Modric vs Ivan Rakitic are not present at this meeting. Overall, after the feat in the 2018 World Cup final, Croatian football has been in decline when it still has to rely on a cast of players despite being talented, but old, without finding a new factor to really shine.

Although a guest and underrated, Croatia came in very well, completely matched by a strong Les Bleus but not in the best shape. And then, in the 15th minute, it was the Balkan Peninsula team that took the lead.

From a corner situation, the midfielder was only on the bench last season in Liverpool, Dejan Lovren acted like a classy striker – he used the technique to knock out Lucas Hernández and shrugged his left leg to cross the corner, beating Lloris.

With an advantage, Croatia plays even better, while, as mentioned above, France has inherently faced many problems operating the 3-midfield game and this match is lacking in some pillars. It was important that the performance of the World Cup champions was extremely mediocre.

The responsibility of creating and manufacturing the ball fell on Griezmann’s shoulder, but last season how bad the striker was at Barça everyone knows. Indeed, in the first 30 minutes of the game, Grizi was like a ghost on the field, without a clear mutation.

Exactly until the 35th minute, Les Bleus had the first significant opportunity when Martial moved Griezmann into the penalty area, but the 29-year-old forward was unable to beat the opponent.

After that, France played better, at least in terms of ball control and as a result, Les Bleus finally found the equalizer in the 43rd minute. Martial started the attack down the left wing, the ball circulating very fast. (mostly 1 touch) on Mendy, Ben Yedder and then back to Martial before being put in for Griezmann to finish off his left foot against Croatia.

Without stopping here, just before the break, Croatia had to receive the second goal. From the right wing, Ben Yedder created a comfortable pass for Martial to shoot freely. The ball bounced off the post, hitting goalkeeper Livakovic and rolled towards the empty goal, for what is considered an own goal.

Two consecutive goals helped the French enter the second half with a comfortable mind. They controlled the situation but were conceded in the 55th minute. From midfield, Kovacic broke the top of the field to tear the French defense apart so that Brekalo entered the field to receive the ball, very hard to handle to get rid of the block. by Mendy then Lenglet in the 16m50 area before defeating Lloris.

However, in the 65th minute, once again, the home team took the lead. Griezmann takes a corner and the midfielder is highly sought after, Dayot Upamecano catches the right landing spot to jump high and hit the Croatian net.

Remember, in this match, the midfielder was called up in 1998 thanks to his great form in Leipzig. Upamecano also came out in the win over Sweden and was essentially uncomfortable, making mistakes at times, but scored his first goal in the colors of the national team.

In the 71st minute, a prodigy was born in 2002, Camavinga fired a cannon near the 16m50 line, but Livakovic still caught the ball. Minutes later, the 1995-born goalkeeper continued to play brilliantly to deny Martial head-to-head.

But then the fourth table also came to Les Bleus. In the 77th minute, the referee thought that the ball had touched Brozovic’s hand in Croatia’s 16m50 area so he insisted on giving France a penalty, despite the visitors’ reaction. Giroud took over the penalty and didn’t have much difficulty completing.

The time remaining is enough for the two teams to score more goals, but France’s 4-2 score has remained until the final whistle. The last dangerous opportunity is the final to hit Vlasic’s post in the 89th minute. Thus, the score for the 2018 World Cup final has reappeared at the Stade de France.

After 2 matches in Group 3 of the 2020/21 UEFA Nations League A League, France has 6 absolute points, equal to defending champion Portugal (2-0 win over Sweden in the same match at the same time) but the difference is worse . The next match will be played in October, the two world and European champions will have a first class match.

EQUIPMENT

PHÁP (3-4-3): Hugo Lloris; Dayot Upamecano, Clement Lenglet, Lucas Hernandez; Moussa Sissoko, N’Golo Kante (Camavinga 63 ‘), Steven Nzonzi, Ferland Mendy; Antoine Griezmann (Fekir 78 ‘), Wissam Ben Yedder (Giroud 63’), Anthony Martial.

CROATIA (4-3-3): Dominik Livakovic; Filip Uremovic (Life 57 ‘), Duje Caleta-Car, Dejan Lovren, Dario Melnjak; Mateo Kovacic, Marcelo Brozovic, Nikola Vlasic; Against Rebic (Brekalo 46 ‘), Andrej Kramaric, Ivan Perisic (Pasalic 66’).