the French team beaten by Germany for its last big test before Euro 2024

In Lyon, Didier Deschamps’ players were surprised by the more spirited Germans (0-2) on Saturday.

By seeing it shine on all grounds, despite the permanent departures of some of its executives in recent years, we had almost forgotten that the French team was capable of missing out on a major event. Against Germany, Saturday March 23, the Blues were dominated, beaten at home (2-0), at Groupama Stadium, and did not even manage to score. Inhibited, they were punished at the start of each period, guilty of having each time rolled out the red carpet for their opponent.

After a perfectly respected minute of silence, in tribute to the deceased German glories Franz Beckenbauer and Andreas Brehme, the Blues took the expression “friendly match” literally. Obviously, the Germans jumped at the opportunity by opening the score after only 7 seconds of play, inflicting on the French team its most quickly conceded goal in its history. On the kick-off, Julian Nagelsmann’s players put together a simple combination.

Like Blues

By pretending to play behind, the returning Toni Kroos, back (and brilliant) after three years of absence from the selection, triggered the pressure of the French midfielders then turned around to serve Florian Wirtz behind their back. Not attacked, the German prodigy had plenty of time to prepare his shot at the entrance to the area and crucify Brice Samba with the help of the crossbar. That’s what we call getting screwed.

After three months without playing together, Didier Deschamps’ men seemed without direction. Perhaps also that a bit of complacency in the face of an opponent who has no longer played in the big leagues since 2018 interfered with their start to the match. The alarm clock will have gone off twenty minutes late. Time for Ousmane Dembélé to string together a few hooks and for Kylian Mbappé to show his speed. Failing to bring the Blues back up to par, these solo numbers had the merit of shaking up the very gloomy, almost desperate stands.

But the lesson was not learned and the Blues were sanctioned again, three minutes after returning from the locker room. A pass over the defense from Florian Wirtz found Jamal Musiala who had plenty of time to eliminate Brice Samba before going back and offering a ready goal to Kai Havertz (49th). The same evening when the France team had to do without Antoine Griezmann for the first time since 2017, the Nationalelf was able to do badly by relying on four creative midfielders (Wirtz, Musiala, Gündogan, Kroos).

Raise your head against Chile

Unlike the first period, where the Blues existed for a quarter of an hour, the second period was largely suffered. Tired of seeing the spectacle put on by the incumbents, the sections of Parc OL demanded the entry of Olivier Giroud. Like the highly anticipated Marcus Thuram, whom he replaced, the Milan striker could do nothing to brighten up this completely missed evening.

Three months before organizing its Euro, Julian Nagelsmann’s team is very reassured. On the other hand, the Blues will not be able to plead an accident. Already beaten last fall by this opponent, they played their last big test before the summer with a more than competitive team. Let’s hope that this first match in their new jersey does not augur the start of a new, worrying dynamic, and that this defeat serves as a warning so that this type of disappointment does not happen again at the Euro. Tuesday, against Chile, the Blues will have the opportunity not to stay on this bad note.