Tirana (AFP)

Devilish passer-by but striker out of goal for several months, Antoine Griezmann has reconciled his two talents, Sunday in qualifying for the Euro-2020 in Tirana, martyring Albania (2-0) with insolent efficiency.

The N.7 of the Blues had to start to find the long time ... Because before entering the fresh lawn of the new stadium Kombëtare, FC Barcelona striker had not scored in the previous seven meetings. An anomaly for this frame Didier Deschamps used to shake the nets.

The opportunities frank, he had had them, however, like these two penalties in September, against Albania then Andorra, which he had missed. What will tickle the former goalscorer of Atlético Madrid, in full thwarted adaptation in Barcelona?

"No it does not bother me, but it's something I'm working on: regaining confidence," slipped the Frenchman in an interview broadcast this Sunday by Telefoot.

And take out the map of the collective. "I'm a player who thinks about the team, how to try to manage each other's movements, try to serve the teammates, if I can score so much better, but that's not my main goal," he said. he on TF1.

On the evening of Sunday's 78th selection, the Mâconnais did both: score and help to score.

He is the first to place a free-kick on the head of Corentin Tolisso (8th) to open the scoring, an offering that allows the midfielder of Bayern Munich to register his first goal in selection.

This new hit by "Grizou" puts the Barcelona at the top of the decisive smugglers: in these qualifications to the Euro-2020, this is his seventh decisive pass if we include the penalty caused in Iceland ( 1-0) in October, transformed by his friend Olivier Giroud.

- The equal of JPP and Fontaine -

Despite these high-ranking statistics, his inability to score kept coming back into the conversation. The 2018 world champion had not found the sights since the friendly against Bolivia in June (2-0); in competition, it was March 25 against Iceland (4-0) at the Stade de France.

But in Tirana, he put an end to a scarcity he had never seen at home for four years.

On a center recessed by Leo Dubois, he appeared in the box to deceive Etrit Berisha with cold blood (31st). After sharing his joy with his partners, he went to Deschamps for a frank hug.

The complicity between the attacker and the coach is not fake, since the two men have forged a privileged relationship for many years.

In Albania, Griezmann chained a 26th consecutive tenure in one and a half years. Another statistic: since his first selection in March 2014, already under the reign of Deschamps, he played 78 of the 82 games played by the Blues!

In Tirana, the Barcelonan has spent himself wiping from right to left behind Giroud and Wissam Ben Yedder, which has not stopped him from maintaining a remarkable technical vista.

And to find the efficiency that fled, so.

With 30 goals in the selection, he now lives up to his illustrious elders Just Fontaine (from 1953 to 1960) and Jean-Pierre Papin (from 1986 to 1994), sixth best scorers in the history of the Blues.

In his sights, the 28-year-old striker now has Zinedine Zidane (31 goals) and David Trezeguet (34 goals).

Above all, he will be able to return to Catalonia with the moral reassembled to block, rid of the doubts that accompanied him at the beginning of the rally when he set his bags at Clairefontaine.

"When he is in Barcelona he is very happy too, even if sometimes you say the opposite," had then relieved his club partner Clément Lenglet. This time for sure, Griezmann will smile on his return.

© 2019 AFP