The blue cruise, which in 2022 will leave Marseille on March 25 to moor in Doha at the end of the year for the World Cup in Qatar (November 21-December 18), is having fun for the moment. After a lackluster victory against Côte d’Ivoire, it dominated South Africa with panache, with a revamped team and only three survivors from La Canebière (Varane, Griezmann and Giroud) at kick-off.
Next time, in June, with the return of the League of Nations and Croatia, among others, on the menu, the level will rise, but the desire will be to keep the same codes since the final of the last edition won against Spain: an intact state of mind of competitors, a flame, offensive aspirations, victories, all packaged under the genius of Kylian Mbappé.
It looks like the program of the Blues of this international sequence out of a superior intelligence, with a perfect application of the plan in practice. There was a France-Côte d’Ivoire to test the thickness of the 3-5-2 of the French team, with the flaws appearing once again in the face of an opposing attack deployed in 4-3-3 with as many one-on-one than centre-forward.
And there was a France-South Africa to delight the French attacking sector, already a success at the break with the three stars involved: a goal for Kylian Mbappé, another for Olivier Giroud and two assists for the account of Antoine Griezmann.
Two games, seven goals scored
An invisible hand would have liked to do better, it would not have succeeded. In the second part, the festival will continue, with a penalty for the crack of PSG, a goal for the discreet Wissam Ben Yedder and the first in the selection of Mattéo Guendouzi. Two friendly matches, seven goals scored, two big winners with Giroud and Mbappé. There is at least one of the two that we are sure to see again until the World Cup.
If the opening of the score sets the tone of the evenings, Mbappé placed it under the sign of the remaining stars, with a wound in the middle of the skylight as a new masterpiece. We will say but it’s easy, it’s friendly and the Bafana Bafana are nice but totally irrelevant. The main thing is to remember that the boy from Bondy has dominated his football since September, a few months after an aborted transfer to Real Madrid and in the last year of his contract in Paris.
Expected after the episode of the sponsors, Mbappé responded present
What is surprising is not what he realizes, it is that he does so at a time that would have disturbed more than one, with incessant rumors, a major German newspaper even believing to know that he had already signed with the Spanish club last January.
And we don’t even add that the Federation tried to pass him off as an ugly duckling who plays it personally by making public his refusal to participate in a commercial operation by the sponsors of the Blues. He is always the same: when we expect him, he shows up. His marvel gave Les Bleus a momentum that rarely wavered, with a prolific second half. The French team knew how to whet our appetite in 2022.
Match sheet
Half time: 2-0.
Referee: M. Schärer (Sui).
Buts : Mbappé (23rd, 75th, sp), Giroud (33rd), Ben Yedder (81st), Guendouzi (90th + 1).
Warnings. France: Rabiot (67th); South Africa: Monare (66th), Xulu (74th).
Expulsion. South Africa: Mudau (83rd).
France : Maignan – Saliba, Varane (cap.) (Koundé, 79th), Kimpembe – Clauss (Nkunku, 88th), Kanté (Pogba, 65th), Rabiot (Guendouzi, 79th), Digne – Giroud (Ben Yedder, 65th), Griezmann ( Diaby, 65th), Mbappe. Entr. : Deschamps.
South Africa : Williams (cap.) – Mobbie (Shandie, 80e), Xulu, Sibisi, L. Lakay – Mokoena (Mosele, 46e), Mvala, Monare – F. Lakay (Mudau, 46e), Foster (Makgopa, 72e), Hlongwane ( Dolly, 65e). Entr. : brittle.