From our Special Envoy in Doha,
We wanted to believe that this third match against Tunisia would be different from those, also for butter, of 2014 and 2018. And it was in a sense, since, this time, we did not draw , but we totally lost. It still took the intervention of the VAR to cancel a goal from Griezmann, at the end of the end of additional time, to come to this. But, in the content, and perhaps also in the composition, we expected better from the coach and his hairdressers.
Some choices will raise questions and we will have time to discuss them between now and the round of 16 on Sunday. In the meantime, the Blues are first in their group and have not lost anyone to injury. This is the main thing for Didier Deschamps and his staff. A DD who has also been able to see that between his usual titus and his bis team, it is not one or two levels of difference that there is, but an unfathomable chasm. Ban on losing anyone to injury now.
Deschamps did it to us backwards. And to think that we believed him when he told us that there was no question of “dustering” this match for peanuts against Tunisia. Naive as we are… Seeing the XI lined up by Didier Deschamps, Wednesday evening, near the Cité de l’éducation stadium (they could have gone longer too), with nine changes from the victorious Denmark team four days earlier, but especially seeing the positions of some – right side Disasi, left midfielder Guendouzi or left side Camavinga, and Veretout, period – we can’t help but suspect that DD has lost a bet. Like “I’m sure you’re not good! “. Well yes, cap. The first period was therefore, without any surprise, a long ordeal, especially for Camavinga in his left lane on which the Tunisians, not idiots, kept pressing. It is finally on a clownish ball loss by Youssouf Fofana in the middle of the field that Tunisia will open the scoring thanks to Khazri (58th), well helped by a Varane in back-brake whose level is cause for concern before Sunday.
A strategy that leaves you wondering. The worst part of it all is that it was exactly the coach’s plan. Not that we’re bored like dead rats, though, but that his hairdressers frolic at least an hour, regardless of the way and the result, so that the executives redo the icing for what awaits us on Sunday. Behind, that the public and the viewers have seen their life pass before their eyes, it is not his problem, in Deschamps. The problem is that this strategy has its limits. Already, the defeat breaks, whether we like it or not, a certain dynamic, but, above all, this group France and the holders of this World Cup do not have that much experience either for us to allow ourselves to mess around a match in such a way.
Dembouz can take a quiet siesta. Established in attack alongside Kolo Muani, the Bayern winger was certainly the player who had, if not the most to play, at least the most to prove to his coach. It is clear that the former Parisian completely missed his mission, Wednesday evening, like this failed killer control, when Fofana had just put him in orbit in the opposing area, for what could have been to be the only French opportunity in the first period. Beyond that, the King proved to be technically messy and unambitious when going to challenge his vis-à-vis on the wing, which is still a shame, when you have the top speed of an F1 from Red Bull. Ousmane Dembélé can therefore sleep quietly at the back of the class, it is not tomorrow that Coman will challenge him for his place in the round of 16. To the great game of losers, we can add almost all the substitutes, except Kolo Muani and Konaté, very solid behind. It’s still light to travel far if unfortunately we happen to lose one or more executives on the way.