Special Envoy to Split,
To discover
The complete calendar of the Blues
League of Nations: group draw ... which opponents for the Blues?
Nations League: schedule and results
A big hot shot but not a cold shower.
In the dampness of Split and the 28 degrees on the thermometer, facing Croats pushed by an overexcited public, the Blues had the good idea not to concede another defeat (1-1) Monday evening, three days after the setback in front of Denmark (1-2) at the Stade de France.
From an accounting point of view, the first two matches of the French team in the League of Nations are not satisfactory.
Not at the same level.
In content, the copy rendered in the furnace of a Poljud stadium well in its own juice and of which we feel at every corner the strata of the past, suggests some satisfaction for an experimental selection with ten changes made between the two matches.
This gathering in June, very dowdy on the calendar side with four matches in eleven days, is also used for this.
Middle Tchouameni
Not everything was successful, far from it, but the evening was not nightmarish either against Croatia, very happy to offer a draw to their legend Luka Modric, celebrated as a hero for his 150 cap with the Dalmatians on Monday evening.
With a starting team without Griezmann-Benzema-Mbappé and relieved of many executives (Kanté, Pogba, Varane, L. Hernandez, Lloris, spared or absent), the partners of Presnel Kimpembe, captain emeritus in Split, thought they had done the most hard with Rabiot's opener, following a magnificent collective action (0-1, 52nd).
But now, forced to make new changes due to the sequence of matches and the suffocating heat on the shores of the Adriatic Sea,
Fatigue and pressure
From then on, the French bloc, also affected by the fatigue and the pressure emitted by the Croats, began to crumble.
Even if Griezmann had the opportunity to kill the match (75th).
The end of the match was close to falling into the unreal before the Croatian public exploded with the penalty, previously refused for an offside, but succeeded by Kramaric (1-1, 83rd).
In the process, Maignan, author of a high-flying meeting, prevented the evening from turning into a nightmare (87th), before Griezmann again missed the winning goal (88th).
Annoying, but ultimately logical.
The trip to Vienna on Friday against Austria promises to be tricky.
This time, we will have to win.
To dispel doubts and look forward to holidays with more serenity.
