Decidedly, the Blues of the Premier League quickly found the competition. If Hugo Lloris and Alphonse Areola were present on the match sheets of Arsenal-West Ham and Brentford-Tottenham, but remained on the bench, Raphaël Varane played again on Tuesday evening, nine days after the defeat in the final against Argentina. The back of Manchester United started when Nottingham Forest received (victory, 3-0).
This appointment was a surprise. Coach Erik ten Hag had indeed said on Monday that Varane would not play again. But the absences of Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Scott McTominay, all three ill, forced him to review his plans. In central defense, Varane was therefore associated with Luke Shaw, usually left back.
Before the kickoff of the meeting, Ten Hag justified his choice: “I spoke with him, I explained to him and he was aware of it (of the situation). We have to take care of him. It’s an emergency and that’s why he’s playing.” The Mancunian coach added that Varane was a leader and took responsibility. Out on the verge of exhaustion during extra time in the World Cup final, the vice-captain of the Blues remained on the field for 77 minutes before being replaced by Harry Maguire, still present on the bench .
A bottle of Martial
The evening was marked by the performance of another Frenchman. Not selected for the World Cup, Anthony Martial scored his team’s second goal of the evening (23rd minute), just four minutes after Marcus Rashford’s opener (19th). Fred then sealed the victory with a goal at the very end of the game (87th).
If Varane was therefore the first vice-world champion to push back a lawn in a match, he should be very quickly imitated by Kylian Mbappé, expected this Wednesday evening with PSG at the Parc against Strasbourg.