Pogba silences critics with winner for France
KAZAN:WHEN little goes your way, sometimes you just need a slice of luck to secure a change of fortunes - just ask Paul Pogba after France’s late 2-1 win over Australia in their World Cup opener.
Pogba’s World Cup preparations were hardly ideal, as he went into France’s pre-tournament friendlies on the back of a difficult and tumultuous season and then faced further scorn.
The criticism reached its peak during the 3-1 friendly triumph over Italy at the start of June, as the Manchester United man was booed off by France fans.
The pressure was on Pogba to take things by the scruff of the neck and silence his doubters.
Australia’s midfield trio of Aaron Mooy, Trent Sainsbury and Mile Jedinak did everything they could to snuff him out.
In the first half Pogba produced only sporadic flashes of his ability. However, France scored when Antoine Griezmann (58th min) had a penalty awarded, thanks to VAR that was used for the first time in the competition’s history.
Few could begrudge the Socceroos’ equaliser when Jedinak converted a penalty conceded by a moment of Samuel Umtiti madness. Australia had seemingly done enough to secure a share of the spoils. But Pogba finally burst into life. After picking up the ball in a deep position, Pogba powered forward, that trade- mark Rolls-royce movement taking him into the final third.
He jinked past one Aussie and linked with Olivier Giroud, the Chelsea man putting the ball back into his path. Pogba chased the ball down and, with it bouncing up nicely, he managed to deflect a defender’s clearance over Mat Ryan and into the net.
GRIEZMANN BACKS VAR
Antoine Griezmann scored the first Var-assisted penalty in the history of the World Cup.
He went down under a tackle from Josh Risdon. Referee Andres Cunha did not initially award a spot-kick but after viewing the VAR footage, ruled it was a penalty and Griezmann coolly slotted past Socceroos’ goalkeeper Mathew Ryan.
“It’s a good job there was video in this case. I think it was a penalty, he caught me on the left foot. Just after I got up, it was hurting a bit. That’s not simulation,” Griezmann said.