Facing the United States in Marseille, the Blues had to be patient on Wednesday for their first match. Generally dominant, Thierry Henry’s players even came close to a penalty at the start of the second half when Mihailovic’s shot crashed against the bar. But Alexandre Lacazette emerged a few minutes later and put the French team on the path to a nice victory.
Two more goals were indeed to follow, including a very nice strike from Michael Olise at the edge of the area, and the Blues finally got their Olympic tournament off to a perfect start. This 3-0 victory was also reminiscent to Thierry Henry of another 3-0 success acquired at the Vélodrome by the great French team… “The match was very similar to the South Africa match (in 1998, in Marseille, in the World Cup. Also a 3-0 victory, including a goal from Thierry Henry). The first twenty minutes were filled with fear, stress, emotion. I can understand it, it happened to me too.”he said at the end of the meeting.
Michael Olise, the future of the Blues?
If Thierry Henry could savour this successful start to the match, this success earned severe criticism from… Didier Deschamps. Consequence in particular of the fine performances offered by Alexandre Lacazette and Michael Olise, shunned by the French coach in view of the Euro. “Watching Michael Olise play, I wonder why Deschamps never tested him. The coach has no alternative to #Griezmann today. What the hell are friendlies for?”wrote journalist Michael Olise.
And many Internet users have pointed out the former captain of the Blues’ reluctance when it came to making his list for the Euro. “Olise is a real goal-scoring creator, I hope Deschamps is on TV. He really is the near future”, “Tell yourself that Deschamps took 25 players, we could have had Lacazette or Olise at the Euro without even removing someone from the list”, “You see why I was speechless when Deschamps didn’t mention Olise’s name in his list”, “Deschamps absolutely has to take Olise in September”, “Deschamps, you’re a criminal if you don’t call him up for the next meeting”, “Luckily Deschamps doesn’t like football, he could have deprived us of Lacazette and Olise”, “Have you seen little Olise? Deschamps is crazy”, “The Lacazette Olise association while some people wanted to force it with Thuram Kolo Muani…” These are some of the comments that accompanied the French victory on Wednesday.
