The way in which the Blues crushed Gibraltar (14-0) on Saturday left many observers speechless. This is evidenced by the reaction of Daniel Riolo.
It was certainly only Gibraltar, one of the weakest teams on the continent. But by winning 14-0 on Saturday on the Allianz Rivieira pitch, the Blues did very well, breaking numerous records. Didier Deschamps’ men thus signed the biggest victory in the history of the French team. And they even achieved the greatest success in the history of qualifiers for a major competition in Europe.
For comparison, the Netherlands only scored three goals when they hosted Gibraltar last March. But the Blues, helped by a perfect start to the match, never loosened their grip, clearly having at heart to break the record for the biggest victory in the history of the Blues. Enough to leave Daniel Riolo speechless. “ You never see scores like that. I am stunned by what we saw. Fourteen goals is crazy stuff, pre-war stuff. It’s crazy stuff, seven goals, plus seven goals. Lots of times this kind of match ends with a last half hour of absolute boredom. We have a team that, from start to finish, wanted to play. And break records”, he said at the microphone of RMC.
And Daniel Riolo isn’t the only one who was impressed. It is the same for Grégory Schneider in the columns of Libération, seeing in it “the portrait of a different team since Kylian Mbappé was entrusted with the captain’s armband, hungry for a little bit of everything, since the slightest record that drags until the desire to intervene on social issues; the Blues, for example, willingly lent themselves this week to a series of videos aimed at preventing school bullying.”