Giroud, Thuram and Pogba during France-Sweden, November 17, 2020. -

FRANCK FIFE / AFP

At the Stade de France,

Clean and smudge-free.

Already sure to finish first in its group after its great success in Lisbon, the French team completed this first phase of the League of Nations as they should by beating Sweden on Tuesday evening at the Stade de France.

A meeting which allowed Deschamps to make final tests and Giroud to reassure himself.

A reaction this time

We were scared for a short while, but the Blues couldn't make us relive that.

Surprised from the first minutes by a goal from Claesson, who took advantage of an imbalance on the French left side, a full-axis relaunch from Pogba and a shin from Varane to open the scoring, this time they raised the tone to return the encounter.

Giroud twice, we will come back to it, and Pavard with an outside volley from his foot to the far post which brought us back to Kazan for a few seconds, put the French right up.

Sweden pushed after Quaison's 3-2 goal in the last five minutes, but the Blues had the last word with Coman who scored in the empty goal deep in stoppage time. In the end, that's five victories and a draw in a group which also included Portugal and Croatia… Despite some turbulence, the world champions remain sacred competitors.

Giroud, the hunt continues

Transparent against Finland, replacing against Portugal, Olivier Giroud evacuated his frustration by allowing the Blues to equalize in a quarter of an hour of play. His cries of rage after having taken over the center in perfect withdrawal from Marcus Thuram spoke volumes.

It won't necessarily change Deschamps' plans for the future, especially if his club situation doesn't settle down, but the Chelsea forward has yet to prove he's there.

By the way, his 43rd and 44th goals in the selection allowed him to become the Blues' top scorer at the Stade de France ahead of Henry (22 against 20) and the fifth oldest scorer in the history of the French team ahead of Zidane .

Anecdotal?

Certainly not for him.

Good luck DD

This victory is a great way to end 2020. And Deschamps has exactly what he was looking for coming out of this streak of eight games in the space of just over two months: a lot of food for thought, before the list of March which will be the last before the Euro.

The coach tried different systems, different animations.

This Tuesday evening again, he innovated by keeping his 4-4-2 asymmetric but by reversing it, with a left side more offensive than the right, unlike last Saturday in Portugal.

In this context, Thuram, who looked more like Zidane's son than his father Lilian on Pavard's goal, again impressed in his corridor.

He will have scored big points during this rally.

Giroud and Sissoko woke up well after Finland, Rabiot was still valuable, in a more defensive register.

DD is going to have something to meditate on by the fire this winter.

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