The 0-0 draw against the Netherlands at 2:00 a.m. on June 22 still helped the French team stay strong in the race for a ticket to the round of 16 of EURO 2024. After 2 matches, coach Didier Deschamps and his team have 4 points, behind the Netherlands (also with 4 points) due to inferior sub-index.
In the final match, France will face Poland - a team that is already eliminated, while the Netherlands will have to face Austria - a team that still has a chance to go through after winning 3-1 against Poland. Therefore, France has a huge advantage to not only go through, but also win the top spot in Group D.
However, there are still problems when looking at France's poor stats.
France has only scored 1 goal in 2 matches at EURO 2024
The team nicknamed "Gaulois Rooster" just created the first goalless match with the Netherlands at EURO 2024. Before that, the tournament witnessed 20 consecutive matches with at least 1 goal. Even the number of 54 goals after 20 matches (an average of 2.7 goals/match) is considered high in a playground that is increasingly heavy with calculations.
However, the French team went against the trend, as the matches of coach Deschamps and his team rarely had goals.
France beat Austria 1-0 in the opening match, then drew 0-0 with the Netherlands. Thus, the two matches of the "Gaulois Rooster" only had 1 goal scored, an average of 0.5 goals/match, equal to less than 20% of the average number of goals scored in the whole tournament.
At EURO 2024, there are only two teams that have not had any players on the scoresheet. That is Belgium, who lost 0-1 to Slovakia in the opening match. The other team is... France. Because although France scored 1 goal, it was an own goal by an Austrian player.
France team depends on Mbappe's inspiration
Up to this point, the current World Cup runner-up's top strikers such as Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele have all been disappointing. None of them have scored or assisted, despite having had many opportunities.
If Belgium score at least one goal against Romania in the second round, France will become the only team at EURO 2024 without a goalscorer.
With 1 goal after 2 matches, France is only on par with weak teams like Serbia and Hungary (both at the bottom of the table).
90 minutes ago, the Netherlands explained France's poor scoring record, as Deschamps' team lacked direct attacks to score goals. France has many technical strikers who are good at creating breakthroughs such as Dembele, Marcus Thuram or Griezmann, but they play disjointedly, relying heavily on individual breakthroughs.
Without the "detonator" Mbappe, France's attacking tactics were monotonous, not difficult for the Netherlands to predict.
Kingsley Coman (number 20) also paled.
The image of Olivier Giroud clumsily controlling the ball with his back and then letting it slip away in the 82nd minute summed up France's problem. Giroud played a big part in France's 2018 World Cup triumph, despite not scoring or even having a shot on target in seven games at the tournament.
However, 6 years after winning the World Cup, France still has to use an aging striker like Giroud. That shows that, despite having many good midfielders and wingers, coach Deschamps is lacking a reliable enough striker to "slap in the face" the opponent's defense.
Another reason why France scored few goals was because of coach Deschamps' overly calculated and tight tactics. During his 10 years coaching France, Deschamps' biggest mark was his ability to manage the dressing room and his pragmatic, but sometimes rigid, playing style. The "Gaulois" did not attack and counterattack, but played very solidly, only choosing the right time to accelerate. Deschamps' pragmatism helped France reach the finals in 3 of the last 4 major tournaments, but also made the blue team sometimes lose breakthroughs, even become rigid.
However, the French team still has a good chance of topping Group D despite scoring few goals. Coach Deschamps probably needs that!
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/doi-phap-dan-dau-thong-ke-tham-hoa-hang-cong-toan-sao-ma-van-ngheo-nan-185240622050046126.htm
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