From our special correspondent in Bucharest,
The slap is up to the scenario, crazy, violent, historic. In a levitating Bucharest Arena Nacional, the self-proclaimed long-haired favorites of the competition fell from high, from very, very high, Monday evening, against a Swiss team that we will not forget to salute, of course. It’s not complicated, we experienced it all during this knockout round, more than you die.
Porridge, first, after a despicable first act in a 3-5-2 which risks pursuing Didier Deschamps for eternity. The sublime, then, with a rediscovered French team which reversed the match in two minutes thanks to its magical trio and a double from Karim Benzema. Amazement, too, with a Swiss comeback that we would not have imagined in our dirtiest nightmares. Horror, finally, with a peno session lost on a kick from Mbappé nicely diverted by the iconic Nati goalkeeper Yann Sommer.
RIP small 3-5-2 gone too late. We have seen lost players on a football field, but in the proportions of those of Tuesday evening, in the first period, quite frankly we can look for it, we do not find. Not that we had thoughtless hopes in the tactics put in place by Didier Deschamps to compensate for the injuries of his two left side Hernandez and Digne, but nothing could predict the feeling of total distress that emerged from the team from France during a first half good to throw in the trash. This is also what the coach ended up doing in the… 40th minute.
We will thank in passing the striker entered the lawn to seek his quarter of an hour of fame, without whom all this would not have been made possible. By bringing out Lenglet at the break, in total perdition during the first act and at fault on the opening of the score of Seferovic, and by bringing in Coman to return to a more classic 4-4-2, the Blues could finally rekindle the light. . And us, one certainty: this 3-5-2 directly enters the pantheon of the most slammed tactical shots on the ground in the history of the France team. Before that of Laurent Blanc against Spain in 2012? Absolutely.
Four minutess for eternity (whatever happens). We challenge anyone to find us what else other than soccer can provide such an adrenaline rush. We rewind: In the 54th minute, when the referee went to check the VAR to grant (quite rightly) a penalty to the Nati after a scraping of Pavard in the area, we said to ourselves that the 48 hours spent obtaining our visa for Russia, the venue for the next evening winner’s quarter-final, would never be returned to us.
Until Super Lloris, who had not hijacked a peno since the invention of the wheel more or less, decides to make a horizontal for the story. “WE’RE NOT GOING TONIGHT,” we said to ourselves. The sequel, almost written in advance, proved us right: the magic trio Mbappé-Griezmann-Benzema, so discreet since the start of the competition, engaged the five-star mode and knocked out Switzerland in two minutes (57th, 58th) thanks with two marvelous pawns signed KB19, before Pogba finishes the table of a rolled up of the right in lulu from the outside of the surface.
Like in 2016, but much, much earlier. Except, well, there you go… What happens in one direction also seems to be able to happen in the other. Of which act. Without anyone really knowing how, when we were on the verge of folding our arms and celebrating the birth of a group, like three years earlier, against Argentina, on the side of Kazan, Petkovic’s men have had the nerve to overturn the table, the tablecloth, the cutlery and the server with them.
A first goal from Seferovic’s header to wake up Nati supporters (81st), a second from Gavranovic to transform the Bucarets stadium into an incandescent volcano (as much as an air conditioner for the Blues), three everywhere, ball in the center and throbbing at 2,800. And like five years earlier in the Euro final, the post (well, here, the bar) came to deny Coman (94th) the role of hero of the homeland he had already withdrawn from the mouth of this poor Gignac. We must believe that fate had chosen its camp… With, in the role of Eder, the firm hand of Yann Sommer on the fifth French shot on goal of Kylian Mbappé. Damn story that stutters, damn visa that will never see St. Petersburg.