The senior team haven’t been the only ones playing friendlies over the recent interlull, and while their displays give some interesting clues as to how Didier Deschamps will be setting things up for France 2016, the performances of les Espoirs have also been very promising.

France 6 – 0 Estonia

The opening encounter couldn’t have gone better for a team introducing some new blood after the ultimately disappointing Euro qualifying campaign, losing to Sweden in the play-offs. Six of the starting eleven were making their debuts, including Nice’s Mouez Hassen in goal, two of the back four (Rennes’ Steven Moreira and OM’s Baptiste Aloé), both wingers (Caen’s Lenny Nangis and Nantes’ Georges-Kevin N’Koudou) and Corentin Jean from ESTAC Troyes partnering Sebastien Haller up-front. The Nancy triumvirate of Nardi, Lenglet and Walter were on the bench, with the outfield pair also getting some game-time.

It was definitely Haller’s night, as he scored a hat-trick – and shortly afterwards news broke that his loan from Auxerre to Utrecht was being made permanent. After a cagey opening half-hour where Estonian goalkeeper Richard Aland put in a good display, Corentin Tolisso opened the account with a a wonderful strike on 34 minutes, followed almost immediately afterwards by Haller’s first, insouciantly holding off two defenders before turning casually to slot home under the keeper.

Aland’s night got significantly worse in the second half, as he was first lobbed by Yassin Benzia, rounded by Haller for a tap-in, caught undecided by a lovely cross from Adrien Rabiot right into the corridor of uncertainty^TM that Morgan Sanson crashed home at the far post, and finally beaten by a poke from Haller as he wandered away from the Estonian backline on a freekick.

Seriously, Aland seems a decent keeper. He just needs at least one defender actually helping him out at any given moment.

Apart from Haller, there were fine performances from Nangis, and Rabiot when introduced for the second half for Tolisso. While the polyvalent Lyonnais was impressive, Rabiot showed a degree of clinical maturity that bodes well not just for the national team, but his club future as well.

France 4 – 1 Holland

After that cheerfully comfortable result, the feeling was that this had been a good match to get the new bugs settled before the tougher test that would be Holland five days later. Pierre Mankowski reverted to a slightly more experienced group for this game, although Paul Nardi made his debut in goal and Remi Walter got his first start in a midfield diamond with Sanson in a more advanced position, just behind the starting pair of Benzia and Anthony Martial.

Strangely, Holland seemed more beije than oranje – our good friend Jeanette Lucero cautioned that the defence would need to keep an eye on Kishna and El Ghazi in the front line, but they put very little together in attack. Initially, this seemed to puzzle the French, but once they’d settled, they went for it.

Yes, there were three penalties, but they were all caused by Holland losing control of the situation and resorting to desperate measures. Overall, they were taking a ‘skittles’ approach to challenging in midfield, with Sanson and Rabiot coming in for particular treatment. First, centre back Terence Kongolo brought down Martial, from which Benzia scored from the spot; in the second half, goalkeeper Maarten De Fockert interfered with Martial, who converted the penalty himself, before getting his brace by getting his own back – again – on the goalkeeper after a pinpoint ball from Rabiot. Substitute Queensy Menig got one back with a fine strike shortly after coming on for Boetius, but it took only a few minutes for France to restore their advantage after a blatant shirt-pull on Benzia gave Tolisso the chance to make it four. Nardi saw off some late chances but Holland never put much of a threat together.

Interestingly Mankowski waited very late (76 minutes) to make a change, bringing on Haller for Benzia, by which time Holland had already made six changes; a sign both of contentment with how his team were playing, but also of the need for them to be able to cope with playing a full 90 minutes in future competitive fixtures, with less room for manoeuvre.

With the qualifiers for the 2017 Euros starting in September, he wants this team to be robust; and avoid the sort of last-minute chaos that has seen them fail to make the final tournament at the last two times of asking. Neither team will feature this summer, but while things are looking fairly bright for France, Holland need to get a few more ducks in something approaching a row before they start the qualifying process (last time, they qualified second in their group behind Slovakia before being knocked out by Portugal in the play-offs). Mainly, to play football rather than just knocking people over.

Over the two legs, Rabiot and Sanson were particularly good, and Aymeric Laporte as the only constant in the back four shows that even the usually-cited wealth of young talent at centre back needs to budge over to make room for one more. A couple of this squad could find themselves with a senior call-up before France 2016, but the transition from the last U21 iteration already looks to be done, and the prospects very promising.