Australia 1 - France 4
Goodwin 9'
Rabiot 27'
Giroud 32' 71'
Mbappe 68'
Lune bleue
Je t'ai vu debout seul.
Sans un rêve dans mon cœur.
Sans espoir personnel.
Going into this match, France's posts 4-3-3 showed that they want to replicate the same sort of tactics which won them the World Cup four years ago. I honestly though that Australia should have played 4-2-4 against this or even 6-0-4 because they only way on paper to overwhelm the French attack would be to counter and flood them.
From the kickoff ot was evident that France not only assumed that they would take away all three points but they would do it easily. There was a kind of lazy arrogance and superbia from les Bleus as they not only tika-taka'd the ball around the centre circle but progressively moved the ball forwards at nit much more than walking speed; which is a stance and style of play that they could easily adopt for the whole 90 minutes. In contrast les Jaune, looked like little yellow bugs who were just waiting to be crushed by a big blue boot. Crushed, they were.
There was one strange passage of play when Australia realised that the blue people in front of them weren't all that different from any other team that they might face and a drive forwards saw Leckie run deep into the right hand corner before eluding Lucas Hernandez who fell badly and injured his ankle and firing a switch way over the box and for Goodwin who banged home Australia's opening (and only) goal.
For Australia to go 1-nil up meant that for a brief period, the nation down under was allowed to dream for a bit. Those dreams were shattered like a porcelain kangaroo being dropped on the pavement from nine storeys up when Rabiot opened up the back four and the score was all square.
For most of the rest of the first half, France were able to dink the ball around seemingly at will and although Australia tried to hold off, France could pretty much hold court from about 25 yards out. France's second goal was duly scored after Matt Ryan sent the ball a very long way out and after a few taps of the ball, Olivier Giroud fired home a corker from maybe 35 yards out.
Having finally taken the lead, France sent Mbappe on scout runs up the left wing and either by turning the ball aerial or by hanging around the top of the box, simply started raining down shots in the hope of playing the law of large numbers. If you repeat an action often enough, then through sheer act of will, an action has to happen at least once.
Maybe Australia could have been allowed to dream again in the 45+5th minute when an impotent parry up field from Matt Ryan was received by Behich who suddenly found himself in space and France who'd encamped in the Australian half, now were open at the back. Behich flicked a pass off to Jackson Irvine who duly took a shot which was more hopeful than good but somehow it managed to bruise the right hand post of the French goal and the half ended 1-2 to France.
France started the second half in a similar fashion to how they'd started the first; with a sense of supreme arrogance and gave up an early corner and perhaps that's as far as Australian hopes and dreams should have run dead. They actually did die in the 68th minute when after period when Behich handily stopped a shot from Greizmann, France worked the ball from left to right and Mbappe turned in a bullet of a header from a swinging delivery from Dembele. At 1-3 down the hopes of Australia were over, for there was no way they were going to score three against the World Champions.
Giroud smashed home another one just two minutes later after yet another Mbappe delivery. Atkinson may as well not have been there and Giroud scored a routine header from only 7 yards away. With that brace Giroud equalled Thierry Henry's tally of 51 goals for les Bleus to top France's all-time scoring list. He was replaced late in the match and would not assume the top of the list in this match.
Maybe Australia went into the match hoping to have taken away a point after Saudi Arabia stunned Argentina by coming behind and winning 2-1 but apart from that opening passage of play before France woke up, the hope of a win was only ever a fleeting dream. Every single player in the French side has had European Champions League experience and many of these players stood on the top step of the world stage four years ago.
Despite showing grit and endeavour, Australia simply couldn't deal with the likes of Mbappe who kept on showing glimpses of brillance, Griezmann who looked lethargic and swanned about the box and then snapped into action, and Giroud who could put the ball about at will. Perhaps there is some hope for Australia against either Denmark and Tunisia but they really need to take home six points from those encounters if they want to escape the group. As for France, this should send a message to everyone else in the tournament that they are vulnerable and can be scored against but that they can find extra gears and if they want to, can run rampant to the point of humiliation.
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