Belgium: Despite the victory and the qualification, the Blues have two, three things to be ashamed of

From our special correspondent in Turin,

It’s like that, it’s stronger than us. We could party like everyone else before the Nations League final, applaud the strength of character of the Blues and chamber the Belgians hand in hand with you, but no. We need our daily bitterness shot, gossip to sleep well. And since we are also dishonest, we will tell you that we are doing this out of perfectionism and ambition, because we want the good of our French team. When in fact, we just want to criticize. So let’s criticize: the Blues have certainly won their ticket for San Siro by beating the best nation in the world according to a ranking as bogus as the Zemmour vs Macron polls in the second round of the presidential election, they have not always been brilliant. Small list of evening dunces.

Hugo Lloris : Schizophrenic performance of the French captain. Decisive on his first intervention to catch up with a double blunder from Varane and Koundé which resulted in a half-volley from De Bruyne, then on another attempt of the Adrien Quatennens lookalike in the second half, Lloris experienced a power cut between the 37th and the 40th. Fortunately, a bug shorter than the last Facebook failure, otherwise the Blues would leave with a suitcase.

Three-way defense : Not a single one of the three central defenders aligned by Didier Deschamps evolves in a three club defense, and it is clearly felt. The usually indestructible Lucas Hernandez was at bay, Raphaël Varane was in panic in front of Lukaku and Jules Koundé was finally the only reassuring in this case, if we exclude the first two minutes of play.

Benjamin Pavard : During the Euro, he had the excuse of the concussion contracted against Germany. Four months later, the prescription is no longer valid and it is unacceptable to take the broth like this every time a guy who runs the 100m in less than 12 seconds plays on his lane. We were talking about Lloris, but Carrasco’s opening score is 50% for him and his laxity made in the Bundesliga. Offensively not yucky, though.

Adrien rabiot : The only volume that the middle of Juve brings is capillary. For the rest, he lost countless balls in the first half in areas where it is strictly forbidden to do so and was not of much help to his defenders. His greatest achievement having managed to stay despite all that 75 minutes on the lawn.

The Hernandez : Same name, same face, almost the same number, both come up from time to time… Impossible to know who is who from the press gallery. A pink dye à la Benoît Paire for Theo, and fast.

A reaction team : The mastery is not there yet. The Blues have rebounded well, as against Switzerland at the Euro (before the tragedy), but are still in the reaction. Against a team that is less afraid of holding a score and the ball with it, not say that the scenario is the same. The France team would be well advised not to give Spain two goals ahead on Sunday. Italy tried and did not get away with it.