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Star striker Kylian Mbappé
Photo:
Vincent Kalut / imago images / Panoramic International
In a recent interview, Kylian Mbappé spoke about France's failure at the European Football Championship in the summer.
At that time, the world champion was eliminated in the round of 16 against Switzerland, he himself, Mbappé, missed his attempt on penalties.
"That's a black spot," said the 22-year-old now to "L'Équipe".
Many in France blamed him, the exceptional striker, for the end.
101 days later, Mbappé made a spectacular performance with France.
It was largely thanks to him that the team made it into the Nations League final on Thursday evening.
The French won 3-2 (0-2) in the semi-finals against Belgium in this second edition of the tournament.
In 2019 Portugal became the first Nations League winner, this time Belgium and France as well as Spain and Italy made it into the Final Four of the UEFA competition.
In the final, the French will meet the Spaniards on Sunday.
Bavaria's Pavard doesn't look good, Bavaria's Hernández even less
It certainly didn't look like that at the break against Belgium.
France were 0-2 behind at the Juventus stadium in Turin.
First Yannick Carrasco had duped Bayern's full-back Benjamin Pavard, in the penalty area he dribbled past the defender and hit the short corner (37th minute).
Then Belgium's exceptional striker Romelu Lukaku let a ball pass instead of taking it, surprising Lucas Hernández, also a Frenchman in the service of FC Bayern, with this ruse.
Lukaku ran away from Hernández, Belgium scored the second goal within three minutes (40th).
Playmaker Kevin de Bruyne prepared both goals.
De Bruyne, Lukaku, they are Belgium's key players, their positions are among the best in world football and they showed why Belgium is in first place in the FIFA world rankings.
And then: Enter Mbappé.
The 58th minute: Mbappé has the ball on the right wing, his opponent right in front of him.
Mbappé taps the ball so that it rolls a few centimeters towards the middle, then, all of a sudden, a stepover, a hook, Mbappé pulls past the defender on the right, dribbles into the penalty area, fits right into the center to Antoine Griezmann.
But the attacker does not hit the goal from less than five meters.
The 62nd minute, this time Mbappé has the ball on the left side, a Belgian in front of him.
Again the striker irritates his opponent with a stepover, this time he puts the ball past the left, briefly it seems as if he then played it towards the sideline to the free team-mate, then Mbappé suddenly fits into the center of the box, where Karim Benzema scores a wonderful goal scored to 1: 2.
The 69th minute, after a foul on Griezmann, there is a penalty for France.
Mbappé takes on, and unlike in the summer against Switzerland, he shoots the ball into the corner, Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, a two-meter man, has chosen the right corner, he stretches, but Mbappé's ball is for him unreachable.
In the 90th minute France managed to turn the game around;
Theo Hernández, the brother of Bayern professional Lucas, scores with a left-footed shot to win after Mbappé had previously lost the chance to 3-2, then Lukaku scored the supposed third goal for Belgium, but this was withdrawn after video evidence.
“If you're on the good side of madness, it's great.
In the summer we were on the bad side, «said France coach Didier Deschamps.
The 52-year-old took over the team in 2012 and became world champion with it in 2018.
This 3-2 against Belgium was one of the best games under him, said Deschamps after the game.
"Because of the course of the game, and because of the quality of the opponent," he explained.
To catch up 0-2 against these Belgians, that's a tremendous achievement, so the tenor.
“Yes, we failed at the EM early on.
But we're still among the best, ”said Deschamps.
Belgium coach Roberto Martínez naturally talked about other things after the defeat.
About pressure, expectations, fear of loss.
You just have to look at the first half, said the 48-year-old.
"We were cool there, understood what was needed, created chances." During the half-time break, with the 2-0 behind us, a thought must have settled in the minds of his players.
From now on there is nothing to gain, just something to lose.
"We got emotional," said Martínez.
"Suddenly we didn't want to play football anymore, we just wanted the 90 minutes to be over and we should be in the final."
That may also have something to do with the pressure that the team is feeling.
Martínez spoke of a “responsibility we feel towards our fans” and the “desperate desire of this generation of players to win a title”.
This generation, meaning players like de Bruyne, Lukaku, Jan Vertonghen, Tobi Alderweireld or Eden Hazard, all between 28 and 34 years old and since the 2014 World Cup together in the national team.
Players who have the class for a great triumph that has not yet succeeded.
The Nations League is not a European Championship or a World Cup, but it would be a title.
“Now we have to make sure we learn from it.
We all feel that we are suffering as a nation, but we have a big tournament in twelve months, ”Martínez said.
The World Cup in Qatar will begin in November 2022, and for some of the successful Belgian generation it will be the last chance for a title in the national team.
Only: Learning from setbacks, maturing from them, Belgium actually had enough opportunity in the current constellation.
Martínez and his players failed at the 2018 World Cup in the semifinals to Deschamps French.
At the EM, the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals against Italy.
Now it was the French again.
As good as the Belgian squad is in many areas, it doesn't seem to be enough for a final or even a title.
With material from dpa and Reuters.
