France get off to winning start against Austria but given Kylian Mbappé scare
Patrick Pentz. the Austria goalkeeper, remonstrates with Kylian Mbappé as he splays out on the turf. Photograph: Richard Sellers/Getty Images/Allstar
On a humid, boisterous night in Düsseldorf France eased their way into this tournament with a controlled 1-0 defeat of a game but ultimately limited Austria.
A first-half own goal settled the game. Didier Deschamps’ team played well within its limits. The Qatar 2022 finalists slept a little in the first half, ran through some patterns, opened up the right side of Austria’s defence whenever Kylian Mbappé stretched his legs. Austria were always kept at arm’s length. Deschamps will be pleased with the control in midfield offered by Adrien Rabiot and N’Golo Kanté.
Starting slowly, keeping the miles in your legs, fine-tuning. This French team is good enough, and settled enough to make this feel like a point of strength. By the end one thing seemed clear enough. The song remains the same at these Euros. Basically someone is going to have to beat France. French victory will still be the default, the thing that will happen unless something – brilliance, luck, someone else seizing the day – explicitly gets in the way of Europe’s outstanding power, even if this was nothing more than routine in the end.
The only negative for Les Blues was the bloodied nose Mbappé sustained in a collision late on, and which led to the striker being booked for his somewhat sneaky attempt at stopping play so Deschamps could make a substitution.
Düsseldorf is another of the Ruhr’s huge, humid, football hangers, with a low, stifling roof of industrial tubes and piping, like the innards of a giant combination boiler. After the travel chaos of England in Gelsenkirchen it was a relief to find a stadium that seemed unsurprised to find itself, of all things, staging a major international tournament. It has felt at times at these Euros as though Germany is very cleverly and deliberately trying to break a stereotype. Stow your preconceptions. We definitely aren’t efficient. And the trains really don’t run on time.
The place was packed out. The Austrian end formed a stoic red wall. Opposite them France’s fans were a riot of tricolours. For France, Marcus Thuram started alongside Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé in attack. At the back William Saliba was alongside Dayot Upamecano, a significant turn given Deschamps’ remarks pre-tournament about the Arsenal man “doing things I didn’t like” during his sublime run of form last season. Those things, whatever they were, now seem to be safely done.
Austria were as expected, with Michael Gregoritsch the attacking focus. Ralf Rangnick has transformed their fortunes of late. This is a team that has been defibrillated, Rangnified, inducted into a high throttle, high press system.
Early on France were hurried a little by Austria’s bruising, high-energy presence as Rangnick’s men encircled the white shirts, forcing errors, making the pitch seem tiny and clogged. The issue being, of course, that while you’re doing this there will be space elsewhere.
This France team always seems to be holding a cleaver behind its back, even when it goes a little slack and slow. Mbappé had his first chance with eight minutes gone, released by Theo Hernández, haring in on goal with startling speed and seeing his low shot saved by Patrick Pentz. Five minutes later Austria were cut open on the same side by a high speed combination between Thuram and Hernández, who fizzed a cross through the six-yard box.
There were some heavy Austrian tackles. The game sparked without ever quite catching fire. Austria’s 10th foul of the first half brought the first booking of the game for Phillipp Mwene after 32 minutes. They really should have scored two minutes later, Christoph Baumgartner stealing in on goal with only Mike Maignan ahead of him, but shooting into the goalkeeper’s leg, having been released by a neat layback from Marcel Sabitzer.
Just after that France did score. The goal was a little lucky, but it was also made by Mbappé’s craft, as he twisted and whirled and whipped around on the right side of the Austrian area, then surged past Mwene in the tiniest of spaces, cut the ball back, and saw Maximilian Wöber direct an angled header into the corner of his own net.
Wöber looked crushed. He just could not adjust quickly enough. Mbappé’s command of tiny spaces, the speed of his whirring feet, the way he just gets to move and snap sideways quicker than whoever he finds himself up against, had made the error happen. For all their pressure, the functioning system, the energy expended, Austria were 1-0 down. Everyone has a plan until they get outjinked one-on-one by Mbappé.
After the break France continued to play in second gear. On 53 minutes something extraordinary happened. Mbappé took off from inside his own half, leaving Kevin Danso scrabbling in his own divots, outpacing Wöber, who frankly was just a spectator here, a curious tourist. Mbappé zeroed in, settled, then curled his shot past the far post when it seemed impossible this moment of nitroglycerin brilliance would not end in a goal.
Patrick Wimmer came on for the Austrians to huge cheers. There was a roar for a penalty as Sabitzer went down chasing a through pass. But the Austrian pressure still felt vague and diffuse. This team has energy and structure. But it doesn’t really have any genuine creative players. The press is the attacking plan.
France began to surge and should have made it two, Mbappé releasing Hernández with a lovely nudged pass, his low cross just evading the white shirts in the centre. Pentz saved well low down from Dembélé. N’Golo Kanté had a spell of scampering omnipresence, where he just seemed to be in every spot, legs whirring, spaces sealed.
Austria huffed and harried but created few real chances. France are off, just about. They will need to show a great deal more than this as the weeks roll on. But the main feeling here was of strength in reserve.