The French team had an almost perfect World Cup, which ended painfully with a loss only on penalties in the final against Argentina. Kylian Mbappe was obviously praised and like him many other players in the French squad who gave their soul. But one player has mostly caught criticism and his name is Osman Dembele.
The Barcelona player started all the games in this World Cup and came up in Deschamps’ eleven in the final as well despite a poor performance in the semi-final against Morocco. Dembele, who did not contribute anything offensively, was replaced last night in the 41st minute of the game after he again did not contribute much and on the defensive side he failed to guard Angel Di Maria, who passed him and caused a penalty that led to 0:1.
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“Di Maria made fun of him and from an offensive point of view, all the times he touched the ball, ended up at the opponent’s feet,” the French media wrote. In “Get French Football News” they concluded: “This was one of the worst individual performances in the history of the World Cup. Both personally and as a team. He did not win any of the battles for the ball and also caused a penalty. His performance last night will be etched in his and the French’s memory for a long time time, and not for the right reasons.”
In “L’Equipe”, a newspaper not known for excessive rants, they did not give Dembele a grade for the game, unusually, and only wrote that he played “40 minutes that are not worthy of a World Cup final”. Another player who disappointed was Olivier Giroud, who also did not get a grade and it was written about him that “he just couldn’t see the light”. Antoine Griezmann and Theo Hernandez received the lowest score, 3.
Gary Neville, one of the top commentators in England, also attacked: “Dembele is already an experienced player and he just let Di Maria throw him around like a little kid. It’s true that he’s an attacking player, but it was embarrassing.” Roy Keane added: “He should be punished for being really stupid in that move.”
Dembele did start all of France’s games in this World Cup, but he was also substituted in all of the games because he showed very poor ability in all of them. Last night, in the final match against Argentina, his substitute Kolo Moani showed good ability and the question arises why Dembele started even though he was weak in all the games in Qatar. Ladshan the solutions.
In France, quite a bit of attention was paid to the meeting between the French president and Kylian Mbappe. Emmanuel Macron, who flew specially to the final in Qatar, was on the podium next to the FIFA president and handed out the silver medals to the tricolor players. When Mbappe came to receive his medal, the star hugged the emir of Qatar – but with Macron he showed an unwillingness to hug. The president insisted on hugging him, But Mbappe did not make eye contact with him and tried to slip away. Macron insisted, and pressed Mbappe’s face against him – but the footballer again withdrew and continued on his way.
He seemed to be okay hugging the Emir of Qatar, but Macron had to literally force him towards himself ???? pic.twitter.com/FsHRXqBcDK
— LilyAD (lifeisatest7) December 18, 2022
This video has received millions of views on social networks, with many claiming that “Macron does not know how to understand hints”, and “Ambape had no problem hugging the Qatari, but Macron was shaken over him, he really had to push him away from him”. Macron’s behavior was defined as “caring” in the local media, but after that the president told what he said to Mbappe: “He is a tremendous player, but young. I told him that he is only 24 years old, that he is the top scorer of the World Cup, that he has already won one and was in the final added. I was as sad as he was. I told him that he brought a lot of pride to France, and in the end we lost in a football match, it’s a sport.”