After that of the English, the French call also arrives at the World Cup in Qatar: Les Bleus, reigning champions, suffer less than in the past with Australia, who take the lead but are then overturned with extraordinary certainty by Didier Deschamps' men.
Despite the many forfeits - those of Pogba, Kanté and Benzema dominate - the French have a well-tested team structure and at their first outing in Qatar they confirmed that they are seriously candidates for an encore after Russia 2018. Giroud, Benzema's reserve, has scored a brace with a strong AC Milan flavour.
And to lead the recovery of the Les Bleus, initially surprised, was a Rabiot who by now has also convinced Deschamps, for a long time skeptical of his qualities.
The match - the world premiere at the Al Jaboub stadium in Al-Wakra, by the sea,
The teams entered the field looking in the mirror, both lined up with a 4-1-2-3 formation, with Deschamps refusing to immediately return the starting shirt to the convalescent Varane.
The first few minutes belong to Les Bleus, who seem to own the field, but it takes very little for the Australians to take measures.
It's the 9th minute when the double penalty arrives for the French: Souttar finds Leckie on the right, a regular tackle with Lucas Hernandez who remains on the ground, a cross in the center for Goodwin who - with his left foot - beats Lloris with a ball under the crossbar.
Lucas Hernandez remains on the ground, in the tackle he injured his knee and gives way to his brother Theo.
The blues try to react but the Australians, robust but rough, don't seem to be frightened by Mbappé's accelerations and control the situation very well.
At 22' it's still the
At Les Bleus' worst moment, Rabiot equalized: 27', a corner rejected by the Australian defence, Theo Hernandez picked up and put a ball in the center for Rabiot who, coming from behind, headed in and went to cheer.
5 minutes go by and it's Giroud's turn, who has touched very few balls up to that moment, to turn the situation around: the goal is all made in Italy, Rabiot recovers the ball in mid-field, exchanges with Mbappé and puts a golden ball in the box where the Milan player arrives with a right foot to beat Ryan.
Before the break there was a golden opportunity for Mbappé, who volleyed but the ball went high from a few meters away.
And above all for Irvine, who headed close to equalizing Australia: Lloris hit the post.
In the second half, the Australians are as if they remained in the locker room.
Only players in the tricolor, blue shirt, white shorts and red socks are on the field.
They attack, press and hold the ball, the opponents in the yellow jersey are unable to even create a single move and appear at the mercy of their opponents.
In the 22nd minute, Behich saved Mbappé's shot from the line, a minute later a nice cross from Dembelé from the right of the penalty area, Mbappé emerged between two taller defenders than him and headed in and corrected the post and into the net.
The Australians vanish even more and in the 26th minute Mbappé with a couple of tears overwhelms the defenders on the left and puts in a perfect cross in the centre, Giroud's header and two goals.
The AC Milan striker, with 51 goals, reaches Thierry Henry's score among Les Bleus,