At least this time Belgium can say that they provoked a genuinely brilliant response from France. The last meeting between these countries begat rancour, with Belgium grumbling about the negativity of Didier Deschamps’s team after losing 1-0 in the 2018 World Cup semi-final. This time France were forced to attack after Yannick Carrasco and Romelu Lukaku fired Belgium into a 2-0 lead. And oh, how they attacked. Theo Hernandez’s ferocious winning goal crowned a momentous fightback to set up a duel with Spain in Sunday’s Nations League final.
It was a thrilling, topsy-turvy contest in which France looked sketchy in the first half but played with fire and pizzazz in the second period, Kylian Mbappé and Paul Pogba showing the style that will win France new admirers and many more matches if Deschamps can get them to produce it consistently.
Belgium have been top of Fifa’s world rankings for the past three years and looked to be in a dominant position at half-time in this semi-final, perhaps edging closer to landing a trophy at last. Instead they were left to lament another opportunity missed. It was made to seem all the more gut-wrenching by the fact that, just before Theo Hernandez’s decisive strike, Belgium thought Lukaku had struck again for them only for his goal to be disallowed, correctly, for offside.
Both teams came into this game full of class and doubts. France and Deschamps have been grasping for a new identity. Their defence has been rickety for a while and a front three that looks irresistible in theory – Mbappé, Karim Benzema and Antoine Griezmann – had not yet worked well in reality.
France’s defensive weakness was quickly exposed. In the third minute Lukaku hurtled down the right and sent in a cross that proved much more troublesome to Jules Koundé than it should have. After a bungled clearance the centre-back was grateful to see Hugo Lloris make an excellent save to deny Kevin De Bruyne.
Then France showed their menace at the other end. Jason Denayer had to boot the ball away from his line after Mbappé ghosted past Courtois and tried to squeeze the ball into the net from a tight angle. Next, Mbappé clipped a dainty cross from the right to Benjamin Pavard, whose header drew a save from Thibaut Courtois.
Source: The Guardian