(Düsseldorf) The French team, favorite at the Euro, relieved itself of the heavy political context and sporting pressure against Austria (1-0), Monday, a successful start far from the worries of Belgium , surprised 1-0 by Slovakia.
Captain Kylian Mbappé’s Blues, shaken up all week by French news, found stability and momentum on the pitch in Düsseldorf.
The future Real Madrid striker forced the Austrian lock with a leg pass, a hook, an acceleration and a cross, pushed back into his own goal by defender Maximilian Wöber (38th, 1-0).
Shortly before the end of the match, the former Parisian, however, left the field with a bloody face, hit in an aerial duel with Kevin Danso.
“His nose isn’t good at all. This is obviously the downside of this evening, even if it’s just a nose. Obviously, it’s very annoying for us,” said coach Didier Deschamps on TF1.
The vice-world champions, well helped by their goalkeeper Mike Maignan, imitate the other favorites with successful debuts, whether Italy, England, Germany, Spain or the Netherlands.
While waiting for Portugal, who face the Czech Republic on Tuesday (9 p.m.), all the European leaders have upheld their ranks, with the notable exception of Belgium, third nation in the FIFA rankings.
The “Red Devils”, led after seven minutes, laid siege to Slovakia, guided by Parisian Milan Skriniar, but failed due to bad luck or lack of precision.
Romelu Lukaku wasted several chances and had two goals invalidated after intervention by the video assistant. The VAR first signaled him offside (56th, 1-1), then detected a hand from his passer Loïs Openda (86th).
The French team avoided these torments by managing to crack the Austrian defense, before half-time, with a good shot from Mbappé.
As usual, the 25-year-old captain broke through the extra-sporting pressure to guide his team to success, the day after a press conference undermined by the political situation in France.
“I call on young people to go and vote, we see that the extremes are at the gates of power, we have the opportunity to choose the future of our country,” he said, defending the “values of tolerance, diversity and respect”.
President Emmanuel Macron has chosen to dissolve the National Assembly following the victory in the European elections of the National Rally, a far-right party led by Marine Le Pen.
The players of the France team were regularly questioned on the subject of the week preceding the match. Marcus Thuram, starting Monday in attack, notably called “to fight so that the RN does not pass”.
The success against Austria allows the Blues to reconnect with the Netherlands, their main rivals in Group D, who they face on Friday in Leipzig. The Dutch struggled on Sunday to beat Poland (2-1), despite being deprived of Robert Lewandovski due to injury.
Kevin de Bruyne’s Belgium would have signed with both hands to achieve a first success, even a narrow one, but VAR prevented it, among other things.
“Honestly, today, there is not much where I could tell my team that we should have done better,” assured coach Domenico Tedesco, responsible for turning around a team that came out of the 2022 World Cup as early as the first round.
After the first day, this group E is dominated by Romania, irresistible against Ukraine (3-0) earlier in the day.
Captain Nicolae Stanciu (29th) opened the way by scoring one of the most beautiful goals of the tournament, with a brushed shot into the top corner of Andryi Lunin, Real Madrid’s number 2 goalkeeper, guilty of a poor restart .
“This generation shows soul and has heart. It’s a great day for Romania and a historic victory,” stressed coach Edward Iordanescu.
The match had a strong symbolic significance for Ukraine, which had reached the play-offs to play its first Euro since the outbreak of war in February 2022 by Russia.
All the players entered the pitch with their shoulders wrapped in the yellow and blue national flag, before the anthem sung with emotion by the team and its supporters.
