Summary of France-Portugal in a Paint -
Thibault Camus / AP / SIPA
At the Stade de France,
Let the detractors of boxing fights be silent forever.
Sunday evening, we waited ten minutes - twice as long as it took for the wind from the Stade de France to freeze our fingertips - before seeing a semblance of a dangerous situation.
It's been a long observation round.
And again, ten minutes, we are nice: it was only a timid overflow of Nelson Semedo converted into a harmless center-shot for Hugo Lloris.
If we wanted to be a little more severe, we would rather talk about the sacrifice of Lucas Hernandez in front of Cristiano Ronaldo in the area in the 24th as the starting point of this once again disappointing France-Portugal.
A sad piece
Pause.
We have to talk about these 24 minutes.
Because it is from there that all the intentions of the 22 actors of the sad play which was played in the north of Paname started and the draw which was going to result from it.
We have seen fear in both sides.
“In the first half we tended to back down, perhaps out of fear,” said Lloris hotly at the microphone of M6.
Afraid of missing a control, afraid of going to the dry cleaner, or of going up too much at the risk of leaving the other, we don't really know.
These fears while hiding others, perhaps even greater: that of a new affront against his executioner of 2016 on the one hand, or of succumbing to a revengeful France who would not hesitate to use a success to tarnish that of four years ago, or, quite simply, fear of elimination in the group stage of the League of Nations.
Yeah, no, that's probably not it ...
To read between the lines the speeches of the two coaches, this reciprocal excess of politeness was not premeditated and the lack of audacity of their players seems to have disappointed them a little.
It is true that we were entitled to expect something else from a team that had just atomized Ukraine and its opponent, the best attack of Group 3.
Fernando Santos (at
A Bola
):
“It was a very balanced match, between two teams who were too careful.
It doesn't seem to me that it was an excess of respect but the game lacked rhythm.
He missed a more aggressive dynamic in the search for the goal.
We waited for our creativity to come out more.
"
Didier Deschamps:
“There weren't many sparks.
We have a good balance, but we have to be able to be more dangerous offensively.
It's a more static game, more locked in too, with few chances.
The system allowed us to have possession but without creating enough danger.
But it is probably also due to this team from Portugal.
"
"Not there to score goals"
There is consensus on this last point.
The two teams recognize the value of their evening opponent to better overcome the technical interstellar void observed on the field.
Santos, again: “France is a great team, there are great players, it is not always possible to create chances.
"In the laudatory genre, Lloris is not left out either:" in front, there is an opponent of very high quality.
“It's nice to clarify, Hugo, we didn't really know this team.
"We will be satisfied with that point"
Anyway, what else does the captain of the Blues say?
“It's a solid performance, we would have preferred to win, but we will be satisfied with that point.
»AH!
Breaking news, we now know more about the why of this soporific match, the two teams had come to seek a draw.
In the Portuguese version, it gives a sentence like "we didn't score a goal, but we weren't there to score goals" signed Santos.
At this level we can speak of contemporary art.
"There are three games left," concludes the coach.
We have to beat Sweden at home, and the second leg against France will be very important.
"Like what in fact, if, the two selections want to go far in this League of Nations, damn it.
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Didier Deschamps
League of Nations
Sport
Portugal
French football team