How smart trumped the beautiful
Deschamps’ France stayed patient, targeted Dembele and quelled Belgium’s attacking brilliance in semis
Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois’ ‘antifootball’ barb at France after losing their closely-contested semifinal 1-0, at the Krestovsky Stadium here on Tuesday, revealed how frustrating it can be to play Didier Deschamps’ team.
France came into the World Cup with arguably the strongest squad in the tournament. However, Deschamps’ side has looked visibly reserved in Russia. Barring a 4-3 win over Argentina in the Round of 16, their attack has not been the most pleasing.
Instead, France have preferred playing a waiting game like they did against Roberto Martinez’s Belgium.
The Belgians, led by Eden Hazard, started well. France sat back, eager not to cede any opening to opponents who had devoured Brazil in a frenetic first half of the quarter-final.
In the first half-an-hour, the only peep France had at the opposition’s goal was when Paul Pogba danced past a couple of midfielders and sent Kylian Mbappe through. Alert to the danger, Courtois promptly dashed forward and collected.
Then as the game progressed, France spotted a few openings. First, Olivier Giroud got to the end of a Benjamin Pavard cross but headed wide. Then, the Chelsea forward failed to finish an Mbappe cross from the right.
To compound matters for Belgium, France had identified their weak link. Mousa Dembele has been an immense figure at Tottenham Hotspur in recent seasons but was a shadow of his usual self in the semi-final.
Griezmann and Pogba, and occasionally Blaise Matuidi, targeted Dembele, drawing fouls from him and disrupting Bel- gium’s flow.
And then, early in the second half came the sucker punch! The first goal was always going to be important in a game like this.
Despite all their attacking riches, it took a centre-back’s header from a set-piece, like in the quarter-final to hand France the lead. Raphael Varane had done the job against Uruguay; Samuel Umtiti scored from a corner this time.
It was an underwhelming performance but enough to get France over the finishing line. But as much as the game was about Deschamps’ calculated approach, it also laid bare Martinez’s failings with Belgium.
Against Brazil, he had changed the set-up and taken a gamble that had the potential to go wrong. On Tuesday, he responded to the suspension of Thomas Meunier by bringing in Dembele. The formation he used looked fluid in the opening exchanges but lacked enough penetration to cut open the French defence.
In spite of Courtois’ ‘anti-football’ rant, the French side, with its supposedly conservative approach, conjured 19 attempts on goal, five on target, as opposed to Belgium’s nine, three on target. Deschamps’ side managed this with a little over one-third of possession. “We had the ball and I think we have to give a lot of credit to France for the way they defended. They were deep; they gave us respect in that way and yet we couldn’t find a bit of margin in front of goal, a little bit of luck,” said Martinez.
Yet, more than luck, it was France’s ability to wait and pounce on mistakes that proved to be the difference. An adventurous brand of football can get a team far at a major tournament – Joachim Loew’s Germany reached the semis in 2010 with a style of play that earned admiration – but to become world champions, smart is more likely to trump the beautiful.