The French team did the job. Opposed to the modest team of Gibraltar (201st in the FIFA rankings out of 211) on Friday June 16, as part of the qualifications for Euro 2024, the Blues won quite easily 3 to 0. They thus started in the best possible way. last international window before the summer break, while retaining the lead in Group B of the Euro qualifiers. This victory coupled with previous successes against the Netherlands (4-0) and the Republic of Ireland (1-0) allows them to continue their immaculate career.
Friday, everything promised the Blues to sign a festival on the lawn of the Estadio Algarve in Portugal – the Gibraltarians do not have a stadium large enough to host an international meeting on their soil. And the first minutes must have made Team 54 coach Julio Ribas fear the worst. From the third minute, the bubbling Uruguayan coach already saw, helpless, Olivier Giroud catapult a cross from Kingsley Coman with his head directly into the cages.
An achievement also allowing Giroud to celebrate his 123rd selection, as much as Thierry Henry. He also took the opportunity to further consolidate his place at the top of the French team’s scoring charts by signing a 54th goal with the jersey struck by the rooster. This distinction, Kylian Mbappé has it in the viewfinder and tried a lot during the meeting to continue to grow his capital with the Blues, he who we had mainly talked about before the meeting for his letter sent to PSG, in which he announced his intention not to extend his contract beyond the 2023-2024 season.
Greece before going on vacation
Not very successful in the game, the striker relied on a penalty and a shot close to the post at the end of the first period to unlock his counter in the game (45th). Still, that of the Blues did not get carried away as much as the 1,300 French supporters present in Portugal would have liked. The score of 2-0 at half-time indeed looked like the lesser evil for the Gibraltarians, in great difficulty to contain Kylian Mbappé, Antoine Griezmann or Kingsley Coman, and having finally suffered 32 shots in the meeting.
Even more than the first, the second half will not leave an imperishable memory in the history of the France team, despite a final achievement against his side by defender Aymen Mouelhi on a cross from Kylian Mbappé (78th). ” Satisfied ? We came to win, to be as efficient as possible. We only scored three goals… Obviously, we could have done better, ”said coach Didier Deschamps at the end of the match, at the microphone of TF1. “The intentions were good, it lacked the promptness or [the] acceleration to put [Gibraltar’s team] in trouble. (…) My players did the job. »
If “DD” will surely have enough to work on in training before facing a completely different opposition, Greece, Monday June 19 at the Stade de France, he can at least be satisfied not to have seen his team fall into a trap against Gibraltar. Since his arrival on the bench of the Blues in 2012, the former midfielder has often witnessed disappointment at this time of year. The French had thus lost against Turkey in 2019 (2-0), or against Sweden in 2017 (2-1).
