Paris (AFP)
The "Mosquito" stings in the Kazakh steppe: Ousmane Dembélé succeeded in his return with the France team by scoring Sunday in Kazakhstan (2-0), a sign of the Barcelona's return to form at the best of times, three months from the start. 'Euro.
Two years, ten months, and a dozen injuries later, the former Rennais found the net in the tricolor jersey, to finally launch the qualifying campaign for the 2022 Mondial des Bleus on the synthetic turf of Nur-Sultan .
The defense of the 122nd nation in the world was probably not the most difficult to perforate for the 23-year-old winger with the devastating dribbles, but his precise goal (20th), well led by Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial, will be very valuable for the future in selection of "Dembouz".
First of all because it occurs from his first tenure since October 2018 in Didier Deschamps' team.
And surely even more because it comes less than two months from a crucial deadline: the publication of the list of players summoned for Euro-2020, postponed for one year (June 11 - July 11).
"Ousmane confirms that he is on the right track, he is able to repeat efforts, to make the differences. He was rewarded with this goal," said the coach.
Already present in the prestigious list of the 23 world champions of the epic in Russia of 2018, Ousmane Dembélé therefore knocks on the door at the right time, offering Deschamps one more opportunity alongside Kylian Mbappé, Kingsley Coman, Anthony Martial, Thomas Lemar or Marcus Thuram, other candidates for the post of winger.
Associated with Lemar and Martial on Sunday, the ex-Borussia Dortmund striker demonstrated a good complementarity with his two partners, striking when Lemar directed the game, making himself available when Martial controlled with his back to goal.
When Kylian Mbappé entered the field in the last half hour, his association with the Parisian offered great promises.
And he even almost doubled the bet, with a head diverted by Aleksandr Mokin (69th).
- "More consistency" -
A performance like his rise to power in Barcelona, where Ronald Koeman established him in almost every match, alongside Lionel Messi and, often, Antoine Griezmann.
This season, he has finally managed to become again the agile and fast dribbler who had pushed the Blaugrana club to recruit him in 2017 for more than 125 million euros, a transfer so far far from being profitable ...
But "for several weeks, he has been playing matches, he has regained his athletic abilities, always with this ability to make differences", explained Deschamps in recent days, referring to "a player who showed his qualities early" before experience repeated injuries.
The coach can also be satisfied to see Dembélé effective in front of goal, he who wants to be ambidextrous but often struggles in the finish.
"DD" had asked "more consistency" from his young winger, "Dembouz" responded seriously by scoring his third goal in Blue in 23 caps, the first in an official match.
More peaceful, the native of Vernon nevertheless remains the mood he was in Russia: "his smile" was underlined by his captain Hugo Lloris this week, and he even ended up entertaining the gallery on Sunday by slipping awkwardly while wanting to shoot a corner.
Will he end up being one of the lucky men on the two-star team?
In ten tenures, the "Mosquito" has in any case never lost a single match with the Blues.
But he has rarely started the important meetings ... The Euro will be a great opportunity to extend the statistics to choppy matches.
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