France players have yet to score a goal from open play at the Euros

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The men’s European Football Championship currently being played in Germany has not been particularly exciting for the French national team so far, which has often played less than expected, given that the team is full of strong and talented players. Despite this, by winning 1-0 against Belgium on Monday, they qualified for the quarter-finals, where they will face Portugal, on Friday 5 July at 21:00. In the groups, France finished as runners-up behind Austria, winning 1-0 against Austria in the first match and drawing the other two, 0-0 against the Netherlands and 1-1 against Poland. So far, they have scored only three goals, two of which were own goals (against Austria and Belgium), while the third was a penalty scored by Kylian Mbappé against Poland.

This statistic explains well the difficulties France has in proposing a brilliant game and in making the most of the many talented players at its disposal, starting with the most offensive ones like Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann. France has been coached by Didier Deschamps since 2012, an exceptionally long period, and in these years it has obtained excellent results (it won the World Cup in 2018 and lost the finals of the European Championship and World Cup in 2016 and 2022); however, the coach has often been criticized for having the team play in a conservative and wait-and-see manner, contenting himself in some ways to wait for one of his strongest players to make a decisive play to win the match.

In these European Championships, among the teams considered favorites there are some, two in particular, that are showing a modern and sophisticated football, namely Spain and Germany (who will play against each other in the quarterfinals, Friday at 18), while others like England and France are going ahead more thanks to the individual plays of their players and the attempt to limit the risks in defense as much as possible. It is a dangerous choice in some ways, as demonstrated by the match between England and Slovakia, in which the English national team was behind until the last minute before managing to equalize with an overhead kick by Jude Bellingham, probably their most talented and most anticipated player.

In the group stage, France failed to beat Poland (last in the group) and therefore came in second, ending up in a much more complicated part of the draw: after Belgium they will play against Portugal, and in a possible semi-final they would play against the winner of Spain-Germany. Despite these difficulties, however, France remains one of the favorites to win the European Championship, because they have very strong players both physically and technically, accustomed to playing decisive matches and all potentially capable of making the team win balanced matches with an extemporaneous play.

2024-07-02 08:38:28
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