France – Poland: Have France Flattered To Deceive? (1-1)
France took on Poland in their final group game with both sides’ fate largely decided. Poland had nothing to play for as they were already out and France were through, though they did need a good result to advance in a strong position. Disappointingly, they failed to get the job done and had to settle for second place in the group and with it, a very tough knockout bracket.
Tactical analysis and match report by Neel Shelat.
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France’s first two games did little to hurt their position as tournament favorites. A sufficiently strong showing saw them defeat Austria in the opener, after which another decent albeit shot-shy performance yielded a goalless draw with the Netherlands which booked their knockout berth. They seem to have found their formula as far the defense and midfield departments are concerned, but the attack was still a bit of a work in progress going into this game.
Poland were the last team to qualify for the Euros having gone all the way to penalties in their playoff against Wales, and they became the first to get eliminated with the loss to Austria last weekend. That was an unsurprising outcome given both the toughness of the group and their rather bland performances, so they had nothing but pride to play for here.
The headline in terms of team news was the return of Kylian Mbappé, who missed the last game after his nasty nose injury in the opener. Interestingly, he seemed to start as the central striker with Ousmane Dembélé and Bradley Barcola on either wing. The rest of the side was unchanged as N’Golo Kanté, Aurélien Tchouaméni and Adrien Rabiot made up the midfield leaving no room for Antoine Griezmann, whilst Jules Koundé, Dayot Upamecano, William Saliba, Theo Hernández and goalkeeper Mike Maignan formed the defensive unit.
Poland kept their defense unchanged so Wojciech Szczęsny started in goal behind Jan Benarek, Paweł Dawidowicz and Jakub Kiwior with Przemysław Frankowski and Nicola Zalewski on the flanks. It was all change ahead of them as Jakub Moder partnered Piotr Zieliński in central midfield whilst Sebastian Szymański and Kacper Urbański supported Robert Lewandowski in what could well go down as his last match in a major international tournament.
France step up to press
One of France’s defining characteristics under Didier Deschamps has been their reluctance to press even when many other national teams are starting to do so. They instead tend to sit in a medium block and give Mbappé a free pass to position himself however he wants and pose a counterattacking threat. That is generally done with him starting on the left wing, but as he was deployed down the middle here, France tweaked their defensive approach and started with a high press.
They adopted a fully player-oriented approach with the front three in line with the opponent’s back three, Kanté stepping up as the number ten in a sort of 4-2-3-1 structure to maintain close player-marking through midfield, the ball-side fullbacks being prepared to jump to the opposition wing back and the center-backs tracking the Polish front two.
14th minute: France trigger their press with Kanté stepping up to Moder and Mbappé chasing the return pass.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to say whether France’s press was any good simply because it was barely tested. Poland were very reluctant – and quite possibly unable – to build out short as they went long to their front two at the slightest hint of pressure and did not bother their goalkeeper at all unless it was to kick the ball long. It was not as though France adopted an overly proactive approach either, as they often dropped into a medium block and only selectively pressed. We must wait and see whether they will do so again in the knockouts.
No Griezmann, no creativity in midfield
Of course, it was France who dominated possession, but they did not make a great deal of it. Their main issue was a complete lack of creativity in midfield, where all three of their players were more defensive-minded and certainly did not have the qualities required to unlock an opposition defense.
Tchouaméni, of course, sat back as the number six, so Kanté was to his right and Rabiot to his left. Both of them were free to drop back and pick up the ball to play forward or advance in the channel, but neither could really receive on the half-turn between the lines as Griezmann would. As a result, France could barely progress centrally and had to channel their attacks almost exclusively out wide, where the fullbacks advanced on the ball-side to provide support to the wingers along with the number eight.
Obviously, Poland also played their part by looking to congest the center and limit space between the lines by dropping their midfielders very deep, but they did also have a back five that offered good horizontal coverage. So ultimately, most of France’s slow attacks followed one of two patterns with very little by way of sideways circulation in between: either Dembélé would run at the wing back but find himself outnumbered (and often make a bad decision) or Mbappé would drift out to the left and link up with Barcola to make something happen.
The latter approach looked a lot more threatening but the issue with Mbappé peeling off to the left was that it left no one attacking the middle of the box. So, France could not create much by way of crosses or cut-backs, with their star forward’s best chances coming at a tight angle. Luckily, before France had to really start scracthing their heads, Dembélé was tripped inside the box a few minutes into the second half, earning his side a penalty which Mbappé emphatically dispatched.
France’s reshuffle comes at the wrong time
Soon after taking the lead, Deschamps made a few changes that saw Griezmann come on alongside Olivier Giroud and Eduardo Camavinga. These changes should have improved their possession-play as Mbappé was restored to the left with a line-leading striker attacking the box and Griezmann there to exploit any space opening up between the lines, whilst Camavinga would also offer better progression and greater threat with his line-breaking carrying on the left.
As it turned out, though, Poland chose to stop defending in a low block after conceding and started taking more risks, making the game more transitional. In such situations, the previous front three’s pace and dribbling threat would have been far more threatening than Giroud’s relatively slow runs down the middle, whilst Griezmann did not get as much time as he would have liked to measure his final balls in transition. So, France got into threatening situations but still could not create much.
Things were still pretty quiet at the other end until Upamecano decided to get in on the act and also trip someone in the box, conceding a needless penalty. Lewandowski’s extreme-stutter run-up failed at the first attempt, but he was given a lifeline which he gladly accepted to pull Poland level in the 79th minute. France could not create much thereafter either as their opponents did not entirely sit back with nothing to play for, so the game ended all square.
Takeaways
France have now gone two games without scoring from open play, so alarm bells may start ringing among fans at least. With rejigged front lines in both games, though, it might be wise to not read into these results too much. Ever the pragmatist, Deschamps will surely restore Mbappé to the left wing and start Griezmann in the knockouts, so his side should click a lot better then. The real issue is that they have put themselves on the same side of the bracket as Portugal, Germany and Spain by finishing second in the group, so their path to the final will be a lot tougher than most anticipated. Still, as long as they return to their tried and trusted formula, there is no reason to be too worried about their chances yet.
Poland perhaps were a tad fortunate to come away with a point (thanks in no small part to a great shot-stopping performance by Szczęsny) but they should be satisfied for putting up a decent fight. Their defense was a lot more organized and they conjured up something in attack when they needed to, so their points column is not entirely empty as they head back home.
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