How France overcame Argentina in 2018
France and Argentina face off in the showpiece duel of Qatar 2022
Four years ago, the pace of the French attack caused the Argentinian defence significant worries
N’Golo Kante partially nullified the threat of Lionel Messi
French football fans have been forewarned: the Argentina team that Les Bleus are due to lock horns with at Lusail Stadium is not the same as the one they defeated in 2018.
While La Albiceleste arrived in Russia with their backs already up against the wall – due to mediocre results, Lionel Messi’s retirement and subsequent about-turn, and some historic defeats – current coach Lionel Scaloni has succeeded in uniting his troops via a common aim: providing Messi with the sole medal he is missing from his collection, that of FIFA World Cup™ winner.
FIFA+ takes a look back at that landmark 2018 encounter, to see if any useful pointers can be gleaned ahead of Sunday’s tantalising decider.
France, who had been workmanlike but stylistically stale during the group stage, in which they collected seven points, were not going into the last-16 match brimming with confidence. Antoine Griezmann’s early penalty (13’) enabled his team-mates to do what they did best, i.e. sit back, and wait and see. Didier Deschamps’ charges were defending deeply, relying on the pacey counters of Kylian Mbappe and Blaise Matuidi to provide an occasional attacking threat.
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Messi, who fulfilled the role of false nine in Kazan – dropping further back than he has been doing in Qatar – found himself marked out of the game by the relentless N’Golo Kante. Forced to receive the ball with his back to goal for the most part, the iconic No10 was having trouble creating the dangerous opportunities for which he is renowned.
“It worked until we went 2-1 down,” explained Deschamps post-match. “Kante stuck with him very closely. We had two options: prevent him from receiving passes, which we did quite well, and when he had the ball, we doubled up on him.”
The Argentinians dragged themselves back into contention via the traditional weapons a team tends to employ against a deep and compact back line, namely long-range shots and free-kicks. And it worked, not once (Angel Di Maria, 41’), but twice (Gabriel Mercado, 48’); this, in turn, compelled France to attack more effectively and precisely, and with a verve that their opponents are more traditionally known for.
The commanding Paul Pogba, seemingly everywhere, became increasingly influential in Les Tricolores’ incursions, extricating himself from the pressing in midfield to find space and knock the South Americans off-balance. Lucas Hernandez took advantage, his overlapping runs down the left twice catching out isolated winger Cristian Pavon and creating goalscoring chances that his team-mates converted with aplomb (Pavard, 57’, and Mbappe, 64’).
The fourth goal was similarly dynamic, with Lloris initiating the counter-attack this time. A series of lightning-quick passes later, Mbappe was suddenly through on goal. He made no mistake, coolly giving his side some much-needed breathing room (68’).
After the match, Albiceleste coach at the time, Jorge Sampaoli, was forthright in his assessment of his team’s performance: “We tried to do our best, but we were up against some really pacey players. Mbappe had an incredible night; he caused us a lot of damage.”
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In the closing stages of the game, France made things difficult for themselves by forgetting one of their basic principles: they had dropped back, understandably, but a wait-and-see approach was not necessarily the correct one at that juncture. Sergio Aguero made the most of some hesitation in defence to put some doubt in the French players’ minds, but that would be the last alteration to the scoreboard.
How, then, to categorise this French display – opportunistic or pragmatic? Mbappe aside, three of the four players who were instrumental in this monumental encounter (L. Hernandez, Pogba and Kante) will be missing for the 2022 Final. When all is said and done, few football fans would be surprised if Sunday’s duel took on a completely different shape altogether. But hopefully, for the millions watching around the world, it will be equally as exciting.
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