No Kylian Mbappé, no problem? Perhaps it is not quite that simple for France, who started this match as a confused rabble but straightened out sufficiently to maintain their hold over a lively Belgium. The controversy over his non-appearance will rumble on, as will the wider concerns around player workload that cast a shadow over this Nations League tie, and more clinical opposition might have darkened the mood further.
In the event two goals from Randal Kolo Muani, one a penalty, sandwiched a reply from Loïs Openda and ensured one more point will take France to the quarter-finals. Belgium’s run of 43 years without a competitive win over their neighbours has been extended but they contributed positively to a night that sparked plenty of thought about this fixture’s place in the world.
It should be one of European football’s heavyweight clashes but felt diminished at the outset. Mbappé’s absence from this round of games as he manages his post-injury workload has caused significant disquiet in France, where he stands accused of picking and choosing his moments to lead Les Bleus, but he was not alone in sitting out proceedings. Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku had both been excused duty for Belgium, a desire to avoid risking overexertion the overriding theme. The three biggest names with a stake in this affair had all decided participating in it could cost too much.
So it felt grimly apt that, four miles away in a conference hall near the heart of Brussels’s bureaucratic machine, the afternoon had been spent poring over legal action brought by Fifpro and European Leagues over Fifa’s imposition of a horribly distended match calendar. Anyone stuck in the weeds of those details only had to take a 20-minute drive to see the real-life consequences of football’s thrall to mammon in full swing.
Some of the more rapacious stakeholders at the club game’s summit would happily press the case that, if curbing the schedule meant compromising their own interests by a mere ounce, international windows should sooner feel the pinch. But storied rivalries like this are less of a problem than far-flung, poorly scheduled Club World Cups of nebulous purpose so it was heartening to see both sides produce a spectacle that, if denuded of those star turns, held the attention with a consistent flow of chances and talking points.
The lack of Mbappé was not the only reason France looked unfamiliar. Since Euro 2024 they have bade farewell to Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud, each irreplaceable in his way, and for long periods they looked rudderless here. That was certainly the case before half-time, when Belgium must have wondered how the game was still alive.
De Bruyne had criticised his teammates’ standards after a limp defeat in September’s reverse fixture, when Belgium flopped in Lyon. They set out as if determined to set him straight. Jérémy Doku had Lucas Digne on toast, quickly drawing an ungainly challenge and a yellow card. With Youri Tielemans in control, an early breakthrough seemed inevitable.
Openda missed narrowly before Leandro Trossard, given the freedom of the left flank, saw Mike Maignan parry a deflected shot. Belgium were relentless, their visitors dopey; in the 20th minute Tielemans played Openda through and William Saliba, slipping as his opponent turned inside, flattened him inside the box. Saliba, rarely forced into such a desperate position at Arsenal, thought he had been saved by an offside flag but VAR correctly deemed it to have been erroneous. Tielemans assumed penalty-taking responsibility but, to gasps of horror, wafted it high.
Bar one decent effort from Bradley Barcola, on whom plenty of hope rests, Didier Deschamps’s players had offered nothing by the half-hour. Then Barcola came again, working space and coaxing Wout Faes into a bizarre diving intervention. Faes had landed hand on ball; now France had their own penalty and Muani showed Tielemans how it is done.
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Still the openings came for Belgium and it felt just when Openda, again subdued initially by the assistant referee, levelled in added time. He had timed his run perfectly to head in Timothy Castagne’s cross and it quickly became clear the latest offside call would be overturned. Belgium should have been ahead but at least they were level and had shown De Bruyne some aptitude.
They remained ambitious after the interval but found France a more coherent and, perhaps, willing proposition. The hitherto quiet Ousmane Dembélé slalomed 60 yards before shooting wide; Manu Koné then wheeled away after beating Koen Casteels but Muani’s handball curtailed his joy. A legitimate goal quickly followed. Digne had recovered well from his earlier roasting by Doku and swung over a dipping cross that Muani, climbing above a static Faes, flashed low to Casteels’s left.
Tielemans, Trossard and Digne could all have scored in the ensuing 10 minutes. This was end-to-end fun now, the final twist coming when Tielemans was hauled down by Aurélien Tchouaméni. Mbappé’s deputy as captain was booked for the second time and sent to lick his wounds; Maignan saved Trossard’s free kick and, press as Belgium might during the latter stages, they would feel the weight of the hex once again.