Tops / Flops France-Austria: Gérard man of the match, a defense to review

TOPS

A beneficial turnover

To travel far, you have to know how to spare your mount.

Guillaume Gille is well aware of this old adage and from this second match against Austria, the French coach carried out a very large workforce review.

With success.

Like the entry of Jean-Jacques Acquevillo, a novice at this level of the competition.

The left-back, who compensates for the injury to the adductors of Timothey N'Guessan, did not tremble and scored three goals with 100% success.

Beautiful work.

This is also valid for the pivot Nicolas Tournat (3 goals also at 100%) who demonstrated that he had the level to blow the Fabregas-Karabatic tandem to this so important position.

Goalkeepers at the top

Against Norway, Wesley Pardin was logically elected man of the match.

Against Austria, Vincent Gérard succeeded him in the goal and… to receive the honorary distinction of the International Federation.

With 17 saves at 39%, the PSG goalkeeper did almost as well as his partner's 18 saves on Thursday night.

But as a bonus, he added his special with two goals scored from his own zone, taking advantage of the Austrians' tactical option to bring out their last bulwark to evolve with one more outfield player.

As for Guillaume Gille, here he is now facing a tough choice, which he refuses for the moment to make: “What is certain is that their performances allow us to count on them.

As to whether it will be an alternation, honestly, I don't know.

Each day has enough trouble of its." 

Remili-Lagarde, distributors of caviars

Romain Lagarde in the first period at the left-back position, then Nedim Remili in the second act on the other side of the field.

Between them, they only scored two goals out of four attempts.

A low total largely offset by the 13 assists delivered to their partners, 7 for Lagarde and 6 for Remili.

The latter impressed with his peripheral vision, allowing him to find his pivot, his winger or even the opposite winger with equal happiness, while Lagarde focused more on serving his pivot.

With two distributors of this class, France can be ambitious, especially since Kentin Mahé (4 assists) is also an excellent conductor.

Unsurprisingly, moreover, France finished the match with a 10 out of 10 from the aprt of the six-meter pivots, proof that they were perfectly served.

FLOPS

French defense

At the opening against Norway, the excellent performance of Wesley Pardin (18 saves) had masked some mistakes in defense.

If Vincent Gérard has taken up the torch, the fact remains that the blue wall continues to have some cracks.

In particular with regard to the support of the opposing pivot.

Robust, Tobias Wagner is however nothing of a reference on the international level but this Saturday, he scored 7 goals on 8 attempts, managing to dig important furrows in the French rearguard.

The type of mistakes that will not forgive in the face of formations of a higher caliber ...

Last ten disappointing minutes

Admittedly, the match was folded and the victory already wrapped in a nice gift package.

However, the France team cannot afford the luxury of not playing their matches thoroughly from start to finish.

We must not forget in fact that it remains on a Euro missed a year ago, completed on an anonymous 14th place, and on two complicated preparation matches in the Euro 2022 qualifiers against Serbia (defeat and match no).

If the success against Norway has erased many doubts and instilled confidence, the fact remains that it can be fragile, and it is better to maintain it as best as possible.

What did not fail to note the coach Guillaume Gille, aware of the risk of a relapse.      

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