France 1-0 Greece: France showed on Monday who is boss in Group B. Les Bleus dealt with Greece in-house, but it was not easy. Ireland won against Gibraltar and recorded their first victory in this European Championship qualifying series.
Odisseas Vlachodimos’ heroics
Both France and Greece did not leave a crumb until Monday. That did not alter the fact that Les Bleus were the towering favorite in-house. France pushed the Greeks back in no time, but Odisseas Vlachodimos kept his goal clean for a long time.
That was partly thanks to Antonio Mateu Lahoz. The Spanish referee, who whistled his very last match at the Stade de France, refused to award Kylian Mbappé a penalty three times. The biggest chance in the first half came in the name of Jules Koundé. However, the defender of Barcelona did not get enough momentum behind the ball to surprise Vlachodimos.
Mateu Lahoz still points to the spot
Ten minutes after the break, Mateu Lahoz had no choice but to give France a penalty, when Konstantinos Mavropanos planted his foot in Antoine Griezmann’s face. That resulted in a head injury for the Atlético Madrid player. Mbappé initially failed, but was lucky that the Greeks caught up too early. The second attempt went flawlessly into the top right corner (1-0).
France then slammed on the brakes and decided to take a little less risk. In the counterpunch, Randal Kolo Muani seemed to end the game, but Mavropanos prevented that with a foul. Mateu Lahoz had no choice but to send the Greek defender off the field with a red card. France played a winning match in the final phase. The fourteen minutes of extra time did not detract from that.
That means that France still has the full spoils after four games and is on track for group victory. The battle for second place is between Greece, Ireland and the Netherlands and is still completely open.
Maignan cannot be passed, Mbappé passes World Cup hero
Four games, twelve points, zero goals against. The game against Greece ( 1-0 ) on Monday was viscous at times, but France’s figures are impressive. This also applies to the statistics of Kylian Mbappé, who set a national record.
France has never had to concede a single goal in a World Cup or European Championship qualifying series in the first four matches. This is not only due to the strong defense of Les Bleus, but also to the goalkeeper change. Hugo Lloris waved off as an international after Qatar, after which national coach Didier Deschamps bombed AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan as first choice. Successfully.
Mbappé also set a memorable record. The 24-year-old attacker scored his 54th goal of the season against Greece. With that, Mbappé passed Just Fontaine. The World Cup legend scored 53 goals in the 1957/58 season. Fontaine made thirteen of these at the World Cup in Sweden.
Keeping pace with Haaland
Only one player in the top five leagues has matched Mbappé’s goalscoring tally this season. That is of course Erling Haaland, who broke the goalscoring record in the Premier League and also scored his goals in the Norwegian national team. The Manchester City attacker, like Mbappé, has 54 goals.
