All those schoolchildren forced to miss classes in Lens on Thursday because of fears of violence by British berserkers can instead read French sports pages for a lesson in simple arithmetic: because even the country’s football hacks agree that a few positives plus lots of negatives equals a negative. Even when the result is positive. OK, so football is not maths.
Evidently winning does not always breed confidence. La Voix du Nord was one of many newspapers to have been left almost aghast by the way France struggled to a 2-0 victory against Albania in Marseille on Wednesday. “So it is possible to play in such a beautiful stadium and amid all-encompassing passion, yet offer next to nothing,” began the northern paper’s man in Marseille.
“It is possible to overhaul the system after deliberating for ages and then end up cobbling together a solution in the last seconds. The idea that the France team remains reliant on flashes of brilliance from its best individuals remains strong after the team was made to suffer for the second time in two matches.”
La Voix du Nord praised Antoine Griezmann and Dimitri Payet for delivering late salvation but insisted that “that should not stop everyone from examining their consciences. To go farther, much more is required. The road ahead is still long.”
L’Equipe struck a similar note, advising: “Let’s not get carried away, as, beyond the result, we turned in another extremely laboured, not to say downright poor performance, with, in particular, a first half that was way off the mark.” Praise for Didier Deschamps for again making decisive substitutions was offset by concerns that for the second time in two matches the manager got Plan A wrong. However, rather than heap blame on the manager for a starting lineup that was understandable even if it was eventually found wanting, critics concentrated on the failure of certain players to take the opportunities given to them, in particular Anthony Martial.
Martial was given the lowest rating of any French player in both L’Equipe (3/10) and France Football (2/10), with the latter saying: “The Manchester United forward did not grasp the chance given to him by Deschamps. He struggled a lot and was very wasteful and ineffective … and did not coordinate his movement well with Payet and Giroud.” Payet, despite his wonderful clinching goal, was only awarded 6 out of 10, partially because his passes rarely found Giroud or Martial, “though he was not helped by the United winger”.
Bacary Sagna was accused of “failing to show enough attacking initiative”, while La Voix du Nord reckoned Albania “took advantage of the space given to them by [Blaise] Matuidi and [Patrice] Evra, who were frankly were not at the level required”. Only N’Golo Kanté was deemed to have played at an acceptable level, with France Football noting that in addition to his excellent ball-winning work, the Leicester City midfielder is “starting to free himself up as an attacking force and try shots from distance”.
A report in Agence France-Presse suggested that “the host nation is starting to pay heavily for the numerous absences (Benzema, Sakho, Varane, Mathieu, Diarra), which have considerably reduced its potential. If they do not manage to improve soon, they risk winding up terribly disappointed”.
Le Parisien chose to take a more optimistic view. It saw snatching victory at the death not merely as a sign of individuals over-riding systemic failure but as proof of a collective mental strength stoked by Deschamps. “They didn’t have much room for manoeuvre but showed exceptional mental resources. They surrendered nothing and seemed to be inhabited by the same competitive spirit imprinted in the DNA of their manager, whose initial decisions, replacing Pogba and Griezmann with Martial and [Kingsley] Coman, did not bear fruit.”
Le Parisien also found hope in history, noting: “The last time that Les Bleus have won their first two matches (in 1984 and 2000) they went on to win the tournament.” What encourages Le Parisien most, however, is the way it believes French people are rallying around their team. “We already saw it [during previous matches] in Nantes, Metz and the Stade de France and we got amazing confirmation of it in Marseille: France believes in its men. The lights are green even though the country is beset by crises of confidence in many other sectors.
“Football is a lifebelt, a mirror that we do not want to break. French people are projecting their image on to the national team, piping down their differences and packing away their antagonisms. There is a virtuous dynamic around Deschamps’ men. Les Bleus can expect to bring people together even more if they can pull off another triumph, and get the whole country celebrating in the street.”
