With eight wins and four draws in twelve games at the start of the season during the Didier Deschamps era, the French team had acquired the habit of playing against model students once the school year began. The thirteenth matchday of the coach and his players, on Friday 6 September at the Parc des Princes, was much less studied. Careless, even, against an Italian team (1-3) much more attractive than at the Euros, unlike the Tricolores, still stuck in their offensive problems.
We left Les Bleus in mid-July, beaten in the semi-finals of the European Championship by the future continental champions Spain (1-2). Disappointed, but aware that this season was almost a feat, as they had been very clumsy in front of goal during the competition. The same pessimism invaded the Parisian public on Friday, who did not expect such a cold shower after the enthusiasm generated in recent weeks by the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Confirmed as coach straight after the European Championship, Didier Deschamps has not changed anything this autumn in terms of his method, his squad and his game plan, which he always describes in a nutshell and consists of showing yourself in order to be more dangerous than your opponent. That was not the case on Friday, against an Italian team that had not won in France since 1954. It could have done even more, without the reflex intervention of Mike Maignan (59th), saved earlier by the crossbar after a header from Davide Frattesi (6th).
From the outside, the coach had reason to be jealous of the work of Luciano Spalletti, who managed to breathe new life into his team, two months after a failed Euro Cup, eliminated in the round of 16. Everything that the Squadra Azzurri achieved, the Bleus did not achieve. The three Italian goals, from Federico Dimarco (30my), Davide Frattesi (51my) and Giacomo Raspadori (74my), all made good offensive moves.
“It was a day without”
With fewer opportunities, more defensive excitement – the French rearguard had been the great tricolor satisfaction of the Euro – France sank. “It was a bad day, we came up against a great team that defended well together”Mike Maignan stressed after the meeting. “Today we were not up to the level that Italy had to offer us”added Didier Deschamps.
However, the French team calmed down after just twelve seconds of play, with the fastest goal in the history of Les Bleus in ninety years. Bradley Barcola (1st) then took advantage of a mistake by Giovanni Di Lorenzo to score his first goal for the national team and confirm his excellent start to the season. Then the theory mentioned by Aurélien Tchouaméni during the Euros came to mind, that of “the ketchup bottle”to evoke the Blues’ offensive difficulties: as soon as the first goal is scored, the others will naturally follow.
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