The French team was traveling to Croatia this Thursday evening for its quarter -first leg of the League of Nations. Before finding the band at Zlatko Dalic, next Sunday, at the Stade de France, the Blues therefore hoped to take a good option for the last square in the competition. For this meeting, Didier Deschamps aligned a 4-3-3 with Ousmane Dembélé, Kylian Mbappé and Randal Kolo Muani, aligned on the attack of the attack. Opposite, the Vatreni were organized in 4-2-3-1 with the unbeatable Luka Modric in the midfield and Ante Budimir, alone in the forefront.
A first catastrophic act!
Speeds collectively and technically imprecise, the Blues lived, however, a complicated start to the match at the Stadion Poljud despite a first too crushed strike from Dembélé (4th). Guilly guilty of a hand in his own surface after a saliba recovery error, Konaté conceded a penalty but Kramaric finally rose on Maignan, decisive after being embarrassed by lasers (8th). Close to yielding, France woke up in the process but Mbappé, served by Digne, stumbled on Livakovic (16th). Once again found by Digne, the Real striker was still pointed out, but the Croatian porter did not lower custody (23rd).
Two attempts that did not hide the three -color weaknesses at the start of the game. Fragile defensively, guilty of countless loss of ball and too often late in the duel, the Blues finally checked quite logically. Speed up, Koundé let Perisic Center and Budimir was a saliba to open the head of the head (1-0, 26th). Off subject throughout the first act, the Blues were even crucified just before the break … Taking advantage of the tricolor defensive generosity, Perišić, an opportunist at the second post, tried Maignan of a superb volley of the right on the ground in the small opposite net (2-0, 45+1st).
The Blues condemned to the feat
Back to the wall, the Blues returned with other intentions on the return from the locker room. Upamecano replaced him konaté, in great suffering for 45 minutes. Taking advantage of a less sharp Croatian collective and successive entries by Barcola, Camavong and Olise, the tricolor selection finally pushed to reduce the score but lacked lucidity around the surface of the Vatreni. Served by Mbappé, Dembélé found the small net of Livakovic (59th) before falling on the last rampart of the Fener (61st) and seeing a new attempt flee the frame (79th). For his part, Barcola, on a center of Guendouzi, was very much missing the leather (73rd).
Guilty of a completely failed and helpless first period offensively on the return from the locker room, like a new resumption of Mbappé narrowly rejected by Livakovic (81st), the French team finally bowed (0-2) and therefore found itself condemned to the feat before the return match, this Sunday, at the Stade de France. As a reminder, from the last square, the confrontations will be held on a dry match with semi-finals on June 4 and 5 and small and grand finals on June 8. The place of this Final Four will be decided later, depending on the qualified.
