While the defending champions had joined Qatar with the statistic that no world champion has succeeded himself for 60 years, they are no longer very far from coming out of the history books the name of the last country author of a double, the Brazil of Pelé, who fights on his side for his personal survival.
His natural disciple, Kylian Mbappé, took care of everything against Lewandowski and his teammates (3-1).
The Poles feared him on his speed.
It is stopped that he released from his right foot the fire which ignites the world fever, that which envelops the Blues with a new perfume of epic.
They will start to scare and that's good, they came for that.
They are clearly going short now.
They played to scare each other
The Blues were able to measure everything that separates the recklessness of first-round matches to the abyss beneath their feet in a knockout game.
Feverish, often unnecessarily like Jules Koundé or Hugo Lloris, they have long played at scaring each other in front of a harmless Poland.
But it is perhaps from this inability to assume the status of favorites that the revolt and the sequel were born.
Then there was the goal that popped up in the twilight of the first half, the kind of stab that changed everything.
Before, it was necessary to oppose twice on his line during the same action first by the goalkeeper with 142 selections now then by Raphaël Varane, 90 caps on the clock.
It took at least this astronomical total to repel this horror that could have turned into a vault.
At 1-0 for Poland with eleven opponents behind the ball, the afternoon of the Blues could have become a nightmare.
Read also Opponents, body part, ratio per year: Giroud's 52 goals with the Blues under the microscope
On the contrary, Olivier Giroud's goal forced Robert Lewandowski's partners to leave some space which Didier Deschamps' men did not fully take advantage of.
But they have more mastered this round of 16, with a one-sided second act or almost.
Here are the Blues of 2022 baptized, sent into the big world of unbreathable matches.
They all know the value of it and the mistakes to avoid.
In an icy atmosphere, through the holes in the stands and the overpowered air conditioning – two aberrations for a cool round of 16 with the defending champion – they above all once again grew, progressed, in patience and imperfection. , as since the start of the tournament.
But they also have qualities that never leave them.
They have two very different attackers, a young and an old, a record holder for the number of goals in the French team, effective as ever, and an attacking leader who destroys everything.
He will have offered the first to Giroud before slamming two light strikes.
Wojciech Szczęsny, the goalkeeper for Juventus and Poland, must start a little fed up.
Mbappé is already the star of this World Cup
In a month and two days, the PSG striker will have been the architect of two successes, for PSG and for the Blues, with a goal and an assist to start in Turin, a double and still an assist in Qatar.
Look no further for the star of the World Cup or the player ahead of the others in the Golden Ball count at this moment in December.
But life is still long, the World Cup in Qatar anyway, and new days of conquest are coming.
It will be necessary to take the quarter (Saturday December 10, at 8 p.m.) for that, to be on time as always when the defending champions have lost only one of their last eleven games in this event.
The last hiccup was on Wednesday against Tunisia and with the A team B. The idea is to stay like that, until the end.
One step at a time, of course.
But if the Blues now want to release the three most beautiful matches of their lives, I promise, they will experience the greatest vertigo of love possible.