Victorious but battered by Guinea, Thierry Henry’s Blues are getting closer to the quarter-finals

After an hour of arm wrestling leaning towards the opposing side, Kiliann Sildillia freed the French team at the end of the match on Saturday.

They did it again in the second half. The players of the French Olympic football team obtained a precious victory against Guinea (1-0), Saturday July 27, in Nice, which allows them to take a big step towards qualifying for the quarter-finals. Remaining at the forefront after a free kick, defender Kiliann Sildillia scored the only goal of the match fifteen minutes from the end of regulation time, with a header, on a worked cross from Michael Olise (75th).

A goal that will not be enough to hide the great difficulties of the Blues against an opponent who was last in the group at kick-off. The scenario almost copied that of the match against the United States three days earlier, minus the sparks. Thierry Henry’s team can consider itself very lucky to have still not conceded a single goal since the start of the tournament.

On Saturday evening, the video assistance refereeing system cancelled two Guinean goals for offside positions (40th, 45th+2) and Castello Lukeba made two important saves in front of his line (29th, 45th+10). These scares are added to the two posts suffered against the Americans, who had also scored before the VAR intervened. Symbol of the difficult evening experienced by the Blues, the misery inflicted by the young Aliou Baldé (21 years old), a Nice player, who was playing at home, on Adrien Truffert.

Football was not the centre of the world for once, which means that it will be difficult to complain about feeling too much pressure in a largely sparse Nice stadium, which had also already communed in its own way by celebrating the rugby players’ Olympic title before kick-off. The Blues lacked desire, creative efficiency and defensive rigour at various times during the match.

In terms of satisfaction, we will also note the good physical condition of this team which has not let anything go from the hour mark. Michael Olise also continues to show himself as the detonator, the one who can unblock everything with a single move. The new nugget of Bayern Munich has four goals and four assists with the Olympic selection since the first preparation match.

Despite this performance, which remains largely insufficient for a self-declared candidate for the gold medal, everything is going well for Thierry Henry and his players, who only need a point, Tuesday against New Zealand, to be sure of finishing first in their group. The All Whites will also try to reach the quarter-finals despite their 4-1 defeat against the United States, suffered a few hours earlier.