In the great race for arbitrary “GOAT” status, Cristiano Ronaldo holds one big sway over Lionel Messi and that is the fact the Portuguese has a major international tournament on his honours list. Kylian Mbappe, supposedly heir apparent, has an even greater head start with a World Cup medal procured while still in his teens.
So it was reasonable to expect, as France teetered towards one of the biggest shocks in European Championship history as their last 16 tie with Switzerland headed to penalties, that their 22-year-old talisman had broad shoulders enough to bear the responsibility of the final spot-kick.
It was a great save from Yann Sommer to deny him, but as Czech Republic and Denmark have shown already, that should be no surprise. The great continental diaspora of the modern game has led the Swiss stopper to the Bundesliga, but never at Borussia Monchengladbach has he received plaudits quite like on Monday night.
Mbappe, Gary Neville pointed out, “has aspirations of being the greatest player in the world like Ronaldo and Messi”. Still, this is nothing more than “a little bump in the road”.
There is no need for hysteria as the PSG superstar’s tournament comes to an end with no goals and just the one assist. It does go someway towards explaining, nonetheless, why Switzerland are in their first quarter-final since 1954 and France, by many bets the favourites, are out.
Didier Deschamps’ critics will point out that when Les Bleus finally came alive, it was probably in spite of their inconstant head coach rather than because of him.
Their other bright lights were suddenly illuminated in the Bucharest dusk. Karim Benzema had a quiet word in Hugo Lloris’ ear, France staring into the abyss on the cusp of going 2-0 down and their goalkeeper glaring into the eyes of Ricardo Rodríguez.
Once the second-half penalty save was out the way, the Real Madrid striker having done his bit, he returned to the more familiar final third. “Magical” and “masterful” were just some of the words used to describe Dennis Bergkamp’s famous touch, the like of which it might have been reasonably expected we would never see at a major tournament.
Indeed, these moments have been denied to the 33-year-old for six years; he has missed one European Championship in 2016 and a World Cup two years later and only when his La Liga form was absolutely inescapable did Deschamps recall him.
Two goals in two minutes from one of the world’s great forwards turned the game on its head, and the best was arguably still to come. No sooner had Paul Pogba spooned a magnetic touch off the inside of his boot into the top corner than he stood perfectly still, before of course descending into the customary jig with his country all but through to the quarter-finals.
Deschamps had done some jigging of his own. He had once decided that Mbappe cannot play on the right, only to twist him to fit around Benzema. A wise move, on the basis of the latter’s performance, but there is always a trade-off and it is the former poster boy who was left out of sorts.
In the group stages, it was supposed a goal was coming. “It’s all about scoring goals for him,” Patrick Vieira surmised before kick-off on ITV. “He’s been playing well, but goals make strikers happy. If he doesn’t score, he gets really frustrated. And when he’s getting frustrated, we don’t see the best of him yet.
“So I expect him to play well today, to play for the team, but to score. And I think he needs to get a little bit more involved in the game, try to simplify his game a little bit more and to play with the other players around him – but I think today will be the game for Mbappe.”
Reader, it was not. His ball into Benzema’s special equaliser mustered a first ever Euros assist, but the recurring memory will be of the chances he put wide, squandering Pogba’s visionary pass, and even looking to have injured his hamstring as he lost his footing.
Mbappe managed five successful dribbles and six shots against Hungary, though just one apiece in the Portugal and Germany games (plus a disallowed goal). Against Ronaldo and co, he also gave the ball away four times.
So a bad tournament for the youngster, all in all, and there is in the scheme of things no harm in that. The crux of the anger towards him lies in what former French international Jerome Rothen calls his “ego”.
“That he is the leader on the pitch, no problem… that it [his ego] goes off the field too, that bothers me,” Rothen said before the knockout stages on RMC Sport.
“I think Deschamps can no longer manage it and it is problematic. It is even surprising that he lets Mbappe do so many things. It can be seen in his performances on the pitch. Today, we cannot say that Kylian Mbappe has had a successful Euros.
“Is he in the right frame of mind like he was at PSG throughout the end of the season? I would say no. We expect much better from Mbappe. Everyone thinks that Mbappe is one of the best players in Europe. But if you immediately put him in the category of the very best, you cannot be satisfied.”
Neville was not so sure. “We’ve talked about the attitude in the French team, but they haven’t got a clue what they’re doing.” That buck stops with Deschamps. Ally McCoist, on the other hand, bemoaned a lack of “energy and purpose in attack”, to the extend whereby “tactics don’t matter a jot”.
Only twice in the tournament did France play the same system. Perhaps Deschamps deserves a little sympathy as he strove to incorporate a reportedly unhappy trio of Mbappe, Benzema and Olivier Giroud, the last of whom appeared to take a dig at his younger teammate after the recent 3-0 win over Bulgaria: “Sometimes you make the runs and ball is not arriving.”
“I’m a forward and I’ve had that feeling 365 times in a game, when you feel like you’re not being served,” Mbappe swiped back.
“It’s more about releasing it publicly. I saw him in the dressing room, I congratulated him on his goals, he didn’t say anything to me. I heard about it in the press. That’s more [important] than what he said – he didn’t say anything bad.”
At least he has the public backing of his manager, who ultimately could not harness one of the world’s greatest forwards to full effect at a second successive tournament. “Nobody can be annoyed with him,” said Deschamps. “When you take the responsibility, it can happen. He is obviously very affected by it.”
It is a glittering path that lies ahead for Mbappe. This was not his summer – and that says more about France’s failings than it does about him.
More from i on Euro 2020
- England aren’t ‘rubbish’ and Southgate isn’t a ‘fraud’ – we just need a bit of patience
- What the Premier League could learn from Euro 2020’s controversy-free referees
- The football nomad who became a hero for his role in saving Eriksen’s life
- How Ronaldo’s Coca-Cola stunt could change the face of football sponsorship
- How to watch every Euro 2020 match on TV and online in the UK
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3drs5Nn
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