SUBLIME MBAPPE IS A TOP 10 HIT
THEY both wore No 10, they both wore white boots and in a parallel universe far from this one they were both being discussed as inheritors of the shirt that Cristiano Ronaldo has left behind at Real Madrid. Well, that particular pantomime could wait because in the here and now there was something far purer: Eden Hazard and Kylian Mbappe, two players of quite sublime talent, bending every sinew to take their nation to football’s ultimate stage. There were other contributors, of course. The watchful sentryman N’Golo Kante, seizing on every loose Belgian moment and driving the French forward. Kevin De Bruyne, flickering with occasional menace. But these were the two who looked, from the game’s first moments, like they could define the night. It only enhanced the intrigue that they stared each other in the face, with Mbappe detailed a role on the French right and Hazard the Belgian left, so there were moments when their paths collided. Hazard was within Mbappe’s range as he set off on one of half a dozen first-half runs deep into French territory. The forward held up his arms and let him go, as if to say that attempting to halt him was well beyond his capacity. That went for most of those who wore blue as Hazard initially emerged as the game’s strongest player. His first half was encapsulated by a moment, just beyond the half-hour, when he idled with the ball just inside from the flank, looking for a corridor of opportunity. Nothing materialised, so he just retreated back to the touchline, eased beyond the approaching Paul Pogba, whose attentions were just enough to force player and ball into touch. That was the moment when you saw why the French have been fretting about Hazard even more than De Bruyne this
week. ‘He was guided more than trained,’ Lille youth academy director Jean-Michel Vandamme told L’Equipe only yesterday. ‘We do not teach music to Mozart.’ Hazard twice cut inside and shot — first, narrowly wide of the right post, then on target with a shot that Jan Vertonghen headed over. It was a searing run against Argentina in Kazan which telegraphed Mbappe’s talent to the world. You worried for 32-year-old Vincent Kompany against speed like that and in the 13th minute Kazan was reprised. Pogba delivered through the central channel and Mbappe accelerated away. Kompany staggered after him. Thibaut Courtois raced out to avert the danger. The 19-year-old did not let his assignment limit him, though. He is the one of these two who displays the impudence of youth. There was the deft cushioned volley cross from the right which Olivier Giroud managed to miss and the ball rolled under his studs again for Giroud, which the Belgium defence blocked. It was a reflection of the fact that both sides knew the other’s creative dangers that the match was decided by something as prosaic as Samuel Umtiti’s header. Once the centre half scored, there looked no route back for Belgium. There is a fearful balance to this French side, with its disciplined and effective back four, the barrier of Kante allowing Pogba to move ahead — and Mbappe’s blistering pace. Against all of that Hazard could not find a way to press himself on the second half as he did the first. Mbappe knew how precious the lead was. He was booked for wasting time as he side stood on the threshold of a final in which all eyes will be on him. So, for Mbappe, the spoils. ‘For me, he’s really a mixture of Thierry Henry and Brazilian Ronaldo,’ Hazard said in a Belgian sportspaper this week. ‘I hope we will not meet too much in the future because the boy is strong.’ The strength surpassed all expectation.