In the cold of the Brussels night, Belgium and France held a very special League of Nations meeting on Monday evening. The start of the match was lively and offered a memorable moment but unworthy of a clash between two selections so well stocked in talent. The Red Devils failed to validate their good start in front of their crowd at the Stade Roi Baudoin by scoring from the penalty spot.
The sequence is truly ridiculous. Launched deep into the French camp, Loïs Openda missed his ball control and was unable to hit in front of Mike Maignan. William Saliba, returning at full speed, then slipped and mowed down the former Lens striker sold for 43 million euros to Leipzig (a very strange transfer fee in view of this action). The assistant referee then signaled an offside, to the great relief of the Blues (20th).
France saved twice
Analysis of the footage revealed that Openda was not offside when he was sent to goal and the Bosnian referee of the game therefore awarded a penalty, but spared Saliba from a dismissal with a simple yellow card (22nd). Youri Tielemans took charge of the penalty but sent his penalty kick well above the visitors’ goal… Catastrophic!
The missed penalty by the Belgians also woke up Didier Deschamps’ players. In the absence of Kylian Mbappé, it was Bradley Barcola who sounded the revolt on his left wing, Ousmane Dembélé being very discreet on the right. The Parisian striker slipped into the area and provoked a rather surprising gesture from Wout Faes, who elbowed the ball on the ground. Randal Kolo Muani took the opportunity to open the scoring for the France team (35th).
