The French team is about to enter the World Cup Hall of Fame. True, the road to get there is still long, when between the golden cup and the tricolor will stand Argentina and Leo Messi, who are determined to win it for the first time since 1986, but if and when the French do it, it will be the first time in 60 that a team manages to win the World Cup twice in a row, when the last to do so was the Brazilian team in the World Cup 1962.
Even before this tournament, the feeling in France was that winning another World Cup would be extremely difficult, some would say bordering on impossible. Didier Deschamps suffered many injuries in the squad, with an emphasis on his two anchors in the midfield from the victory in Russia, Angolo Kante and Paul Pogba, and after Karim Benzema also entered the list a few days before the opening whistle, the state of the squad did not leave many reasons for optimism in the French camp. But even this “bruised” France still has a significant advantage over any other team. This advantage that is manifested mainly in such short and concentrated tournaments, tournaments in which it is not only the ability that can lead you to the swing. This advantage is called the element of experience.
Hugo Lloris, Raphael Varane, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe and Olivier Giroud – this quintet was included in Deschamps’ 11 throughout the entire tournament in 2018, but the following figure explains that coordination and experience in national football teams is a necessary commodity, and France’s success, even if Sometimes it seems that it is “less impressive”, it is still not accidental: in all the last nine games of France in which Lloris, Veran, Griezmann and Giroud played, the team won. Four and a half years have passed, they are no longer exactly the same players, for better or for worse, but the results remain. So what happened to the stars of the previous victory from that final in Kazan to the identical status in Qatar?
Lloris silenced the English
starting from the bottom. Many believed even before this tournament that Hugo Lloris No longer good enough to stand between the bars of the French team. In fact, Lloris was never included on the list of the “stars” of the tricolor, as his mistake in the final in Russia in 2018, which led to Croatia’s cringe-worthy goal, still resonates in people’s minds, even though he did not make the winning team. The following season, he came close to making another history when he reached the Champions League final with Tottenham, losing 2:0 to Liverpool.
Before this World Cup, many saw Lloris as the weak link of the French team. In fact, the injury of Mike Mannan, the goalkeeper of Milan, “helped” Didier Deschamps, who apparently would also have given the credit to the goalkeeper of Tottenham. In England, Lloris is no longer appreciated and is not considered one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League. As proof of this, after France eliminated England in the quarter-finals, one of the English journalists approached Lloris and asked him “if he has two minutes”. Loris replied in an angry and sarcastic tone “Now do you want to talk to me?”.
The reason for this reaction was an article in England in which it was argued why Lloris is the “weak link” of France and how Jordan Pickford, England’s goalkeeper, is better than him. On the field, Lloris responded with two big saves en route to the semifinals. In the half as well, the goalkeeper provided a great performance, perhaps, on the way to a second consecutive win. When you need him, he is still there for his team. He is her leader from behind.
Those who eulogized Veran are already beginning to regret it
Inconceivable that Raphael Varane is only 29 years old. In fact, the brakeman, who was a senior partner in winning four and a half years ago, has already achieved everything in his career. But since that achievement in Kazan, there has been a decline. This decline caused Real Madrid to give him up and sell him to Manchester United for €40 million, after he still managed to win another Spanish championship with the Blancos in 2019/20, his third in number, the first since the team recovered from the trauma of Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure.
Warren took time to acclimatise in the Premier League. The truth is, it’s hard to blame him for the lack of success when the entire system around him at United looks completely rotten, one that hasn’t allowed almost any purchased player who came to Old Trafford in recent years to realize their expectations and potential. In his first season, which United finished in sixth place in the league and was eliminated in the round of 16 of the Champions League, he made 29 appearances in all competitions, but also suffered a few injuries that prevented him from displaying the same ability that heTony Crosshis former teammate at Real Madrid, got used to seeing him.
“He is one of the fastest players out there, when we played together, very few players managed to break free from his guard. In the air, you can’t beat him” said the German about the Frenchman. This season, Veran has already made 10 appearances for United, and although he arrived at the World Cup injured and even missed the opening game, he quickly took over the defense of the tricolor and has been leading it with a firm hand ever since. With a huge performance against England, he reminded that great stopper who burst into consciousness at the age of 19, another one against Poland brought him close to the second World Cup in his career, at the age of 29. Amazing.
What didn’t happen to Griezmann
The amazing World Cup of Antoine Griezmann Put him high on the list of candidates for player of the tournament, but to be honest, it is doubtful that anyone anticipated the wonderful ability of the player who may have made the biggest change to the French squad, or the entire World Cup. If we go back, four years ago Griezmann was considered a superstar. Even before Mbappe’s renaissance, he was the one who led and controlled the French national team, he was the executor, the leader, everything. After a record season at Atlético Madrid, the World Cup in Russia arrived and with it four goals that he scored on the way to victory, but from there, the deterioration began.
It’s hard to blame Griezmann for that, but his move to Barcelona was perhaps the worst decision he could have made, although it is not impossible that it was also the one that helped him understand what kind of player he really is. With him and Messi stepping on each other’s toes as two left-wingers of similar nature in attack, Griezmann was far from justifying the €120 million paid for him. He scored 35 goals in 102 appearances, but it just wasn’t it. Cholo Simeone’s return to Atlético was inevitable and at the start of 2021/22, it happened.
Griezmann returned home and despite an unimpressive first season, his second season is already much more significant, which led Atlético to purchase him and thus put an end to that famous clause that made Simeone bring him in every time only after the 60th minute and start with him a few times. In this term at Atletico, Griezmann has realized that his role is no longer to be the main executor when it comes to scoring goals. He has to step back, organize the game, direct, lead, and that’s exactly what he does in the team, and for the best part in the team in this tournament.
This time, Giroud also scores
The fact that he didn’t score another goal at the 2018 World Cup didn’t stop Olivier Giroud from shedding genuine tears of joy after France’s win in Kazan. Four and a half years later, his story is completely different. Giroud was not supposed to be France’s starting striker at all, but like then, he entered the lineup at the last minute, this time following Karim Benzema’s injury. So far, he has managed to be a significant factor as his partnership with Kylian Mbappe in attack ignites the imagination and he himself has scored no less than four goals.
Since that win in Kazan, Giroud has mostly been looking for stability. A place that will give him the peace and faith as a first striker, that will trust him and see the same work and layers that he adds to the game that Deschamps saw in 2018. At Chelsea, that didn’t exactly happen, as he was never really considered the first man in attack. That didn’t stop him scoring 6 goals in 8 Champions League appearances en route for the Blues to win in 2021, but a move from England was inevitable. He arrived at Milan, in what turned out to be the perfect match for him.
Many wondered how the Rossoneri would sign a 35-year-old striker as a back-up to the “aging” Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but Giroud did exactly what he knows how to do, using his physical superiority, game intelligence and impressive acrobatics and flexibility to help the Reds and Blacks conquer Italy and win their first Scudetto Since 2010, when he scored 11 goals, each one more critical than the other. This is exactly what he is doing both this season in Italy, and in the tournament in Qatar, when this time, no one will be able to make claims about the crop he produces for Deschamps’ tricolor.
Faster, stronger: the upgraded version of Mbapa
We have reached the icing on the cake. Kylian Mbappe was the youngest of the above list when he became a world champion already at the age of 19 and today, he is the oldest among them by a huge margin and is seen by many as the best footballer in the world. So far in the tournament he has scored five goals and in general, every offensive move of the world champion goes through his feet. Sometimes it seems that when he decides, things happen.
If Mbappe arrived at the tournament in Russia as the rising talent of world football, he already arrived in Qatar as a mega superstar. Since that World Cup in 2018, he has been given the reins to lead the Paris Saint-Germain attack, finishing as the top scorer in the French league every season and becoming the youngest player to reach 100 goals in the league when he did so at the age of 22 (he already has 147), but in Ligue 1 The champions, failed in the mission of the Qatari management and failed to lead the team to win the big-eared cup.
Since then, we still had time to get an ongoing saga surrounding the extension of his contract and he had time to break the hearts of Real Madrid fans, when he chose to reject the offer of the Blancos who courted him and stay in the city of lights to become the top earner in world football with another host of privileges that place him as the most powerful man in the club, in a decision that was criticized by Criticism in world football.
Mbappe’s biggest game in the 2018 World Cup was against Argentina and Messi, when he finished with a header and an unimaginable individual performance en route to the penalty scored by Griezmann. A similar performance in front of the Flea and his friends and winning the golden cup for the second time before the age of 24, will advance him, already now, high and high on the list of the greatest ever, and that is where he is aiming.