The French team has won a second straight game, its first since a set of friendlies against Chile and Luxembourg in March and June before the Euro. Germany has never won two consecutive Euro games or on penalties against Portugal (0-0) after defeating Belgium (1-0).
It is also the Red Devils who will meet again on Monday in Brussels to confirm their small progress. Not necessarily in the game, but at least on offence, since Kylian Mbappé, who has been loaned to Real Madrid, and Antoine Griezmann, who has retired, are absent from this inaugural autumn meeting.
The Blues did not win hearts, rarely multiplying stifling motions against a weak Israeli national team in its tactics of defending, pressing, and counterattacking, most of the time on losses of the ball falling from the sky like a gift.
Like Michael Olise’s, which led to a general surprise equalizer by Omri Gandelman (1-1, 24th) following a sequence of individual failings in marking or positioning, from Jules Koundé to William Saliba via Aurélien Tchouaméni.
The “locals” in blue scored with their first shot on goal. Eduardo Camavinga, who was quite fascinating in his ball handling and orientations, put his team ahead with a long-range shot that Omri Glazer, who looked more like Jean-Claude Dusse than a goalkeeper’s save, escorted into his goal (0-1, 7th) by wrapping himself around the ball.
If the Blues showed some signs of life up front, Randal Kolo Muani and Christopher Nkunku (scorer of the 2-1) had a lot to do with it, with to their runs, play in tight spaces, and a healthy dose of determination.
They are hardly among the world’s top attackers, far from it, but they have something more, a tenacity that the A team lacked in 2024, which made their performances so agonizing. Boredom takes the elevator, pleasure takes the stairs, and curve inversion takes time.
The attacking quintet will be positioned differently in the second half, with Nkunku playing as a playmaker, Ousmane Dembélé going to the left (a rare), and Olise switching to right wing.
Highly anticipated, Bayern Munich’s new nugget has missed his mark, with significant waste and a casualness reminiscent of above-average players who forget to hurt themselves and shoot accurately.
At the end of his third selection, the phenomenon remains classic in a squad with an average of 18 caps per player, a sign of Didier Deschamps’ new era, as much by choice as by obligation in the context of the absentees, the captain and his former vice-captain atomizing the counters with their 223 combined international matches.
This logical victory does not obscure the French difficulties in maintaining constant pressure on Israel and delivering a successful show, with crosses, presence, and weight in the area for a goalkeeper put to the test, if not at the end, with goals from Mattéo Guendouzi and Bradley Barcola, two substitutes who scored when Ben Simon‘s protégés had nothing left in their socks.
This scenario has never occurred before, referring to a French squad that is still too modest in its aims. It may be increasing, but not as swiftly as the monotony that constantly follows it.
