As part of the quarter-finals of the Nations League, Equipe de France was at the Stade de France on Sunday to take on Croatia. The match featured 4 Paris Saint-Germain players on the French side: Warren Zaïre-Emery, Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué and Bradley Barcola. Barcola and Dembélé were first-teamers, with a goal for the latter, while Doué and Zaïre-Emery came on for the 2-0 victory that took the game to penalties and a place in the semi-finals (5-4). Here are the Bleus notes in the press.
Le Parisien :
Mbappé (6)
Barcola (4,5) – Olise (8) – Dembélé (6,5)
Tchouaméni (6,5) – Koné (6)
T. Hernandez (5) – Saliba (6,5) – Upamecano (7) – Koundé (5,5)
Maignan (8)
L’Equipe :
Mbappé (6)
Barcola (4) – Olise (8) – Dembélé(6)
Tchouaméni (6) – Koné (5)
T. Hernandez (5) – Saliba (6) – Upamecano (8) – Koundé (6)
Maignan (7)
Positive and well-deserved marks for Les Bleus, who put in a great performance against Croatia to go through on penalties and win the game. Maignan shone after having been rather quiet throughout the match. Upamecano was in fine form, but the images of Olise’s saves and free-kick were more memorable.
Above all, we finally had an attacking French team that set the pace. This was particularly the case with an excellent Olise, who we’ll be keen to see again in Les Bleus. Dembélé was also very interesting, while Barcola lacked consistency. Doué and Zaïre-Emery both made good debuts.
