It is certainly not the most aesthetic “goal” of his career nor, to tell the truth, the most controlled. A missed shot, hit against the Düsseldorf pitch and deflected by the calf of the unfortunate Jan Vertonghen (85th). But in the end, at 25 years old, Randal Kolo Muani probably “scored”, this Monday July 1st against Belgium, one of the most important goals of his existence to offer the Blues a qualification for the quarter-finals of the Euro.
Even if this achievement is actually awarded to Vertonghen against his own camp, let’s still give Kolo Muani the merit of having succeeded in his oriented control then daring to trigger, when none of his teammates had deigned to execute a strike after a long and static action, like so many others this Monday evening. Let’s also recognize him, a real revenge for his first knockout match since this disastrous World Cup final in Doha, on December 18, 2022.
It’s starting to become a habit: every time he plays a decisive match in a major tournament, the PSG striker gets noticed. This was the case against Morocco (2-0) in the semi-final of the World Cup, to secure qualification, then, in a less fruitful register, against Argentina in the final, with this golden opportunity missed in front of Emiliano Martinez. It will undoubtedly take others to definitively – if he can – erase this trauma, but Kolo Muani has at least confirmed his good form with the Blues.
“Kolo, it’s Kolo, it’s good for him”
After a difficult season in Paris, the former Nantes player showed another level of efficiency with Les Bleus, with whom he systematically scored as soon as he played more than half an hour. This was the case until now against Greece, Chile and Luxembourg. It is now the case against an opponent of a completely different calibre, when it really counts. Kolo Muani seems transfigured, paradoxically freed from a weight with the blue jersey, and this was again seen on a ball scraped into the feet of Orel Mangala (90th + 3) to definitively seal the fate of the match.
“Kolo is Kolo, it’s good for him, he’s smiling,” said Didier Deschamps a few minutes later on TF 1. Little used until then (23 minutes spread over the Austria and Poland matches), Kolo Muani was the only option brought into play by the coach on Monday, preferring him to Bradley Barcola, Olivier Giroud or Ousmane Dembélé.
“The coach asked me to bring freshness, keep the ball and provoke with my speed, it boosted the team,” the player said on BeIN Sports. Given his sharpness and the rather lackluster performance of Marcus Thuram up front, there would be nothing illogical in imagining him starting the quarter-final against Portugal this Friday (9 p.m.).
