Paris (AFP)

France, beating Croatia (4-2) on the same score as in the final of the last World Cup, and Portugal, thanks to a brace from Cristiano Ronaldo against Sweden (2-0), continued their journey on Tuesday without spot in the UEFA Nations League.

The world champions, thanks to three minutes of madness, just before the break, and especially two goals from Antoine Griezmann (43rd) and Anthony Martial (45th + 1, attributed to the Croatian goalkeeper because the ball bounced off his head after hitting the post), first made up for a failed first half hour against Croatians still as talented and enterprising.

"For a good half hour, we were largely dominated in aggression, so we are doing well," said Didier Deschamps at the break on TF1.

"In terms of technical quality, we can do better", he added, lucid.

As in the final of the World Cup, two years ago in Russia, the Croats had indeed opened the scoring, this time on a jewel of Lovren, the former player of Monaco: a perfect control followed by a unstoppable left shot, even by Hugo Lloris (17th).

On the equalizing goal of the Croats, Brekalo, the Wolfsburg striker, did even better: alone in the middle of three Blues, after being thrown in depth, he managed to adjust a perfect shot (55th) synonymous with 2-2 at the Stade de France scoreboard.

But as in 2018 in Moscow, the match ended with a 4-2 for the Blues, because Dayot Upamecano, the young central defender of RB Leipzig (21) celebrated his second selection with a header ( 65th), then because Olivier Giroud, from a penalty (77th), reached the milestone of 40 goals in the selection.

- 100th CR7 goal for Portugal -

The icing on the cake, Eduardo Camavinga made his Blue debut at the end of the match at 17, and did not seem impressed.

He played fair, simple and easy, as if he were at home, at Roazhon Park in Rennes.

In the other match of this group 3, Portugal, winner last year of the first edition of the League of Nations, found their road captain, Cristiano Ronaldo, cured of his infection in one toe, and has well. profited.

"CR7" indeed opened the scoring on a free kick (45th + 1) and therefore scored his 100th goal for the Portuguese team, against Sweden.

Then the 101st, in the wake (72nd), just to remind who is the boss.

In Group 2, the rejuvenated England failed to beat Denmark (0-0).

In the other match, Belgium continued its health walk by dominating Iceland (5-1) thanks to a goal from Witsel (13th), a brace from Batshuayi (17th, 69th), a pawn of the inevitable Dries Mertens (50th) and a youngest of Doku (80th), for the road.

© 2020 AFP