GROUP F
Bulgaria 0-1 France
Varane '86
Marco Ruiz
Ferenc Puskas Stadion, Budapest, Hungary
Saturday 20th June
On the pitch, France tore Bulgaria to shreds. Their 69% possession over the 93 minutes played led to 41 shots on goal. Thirty-three shots were on target with a staggering seven hitting one of the uprights and two more thumping the crossbar.
And yet for all of their efforts and energy expended, the French were only able to manage one, late goal, which came from a long cross into the box. Rafael Varane rose to the rescue and emulated what his clubside captain Sergio Ramos does so often by climbing over all opponents to head home the winner.
With only four more minutes of regulation time remaining, there was talk that this could be the biggest surprise of the tournament so far despite Bulgaria failing to threaten the opposition goal. The sigh of relief among the French fans at the Ferenc Puskas Stadion was felt by all.
After the match, Didier Deschamps was asked to comment on the Bulgarian’s tactics for their second group game against the reigning World Cup champions. Although Deschamps refused to be drawn into criticising Georgi Dermendjiev, his Bulgarian counterpart, the frustration was clear. Later, when he was asked about the possibility of bowing out of the tournament due to goal difference if Germany managed to claim the three points against Portugal, he again refused to speculate.
“We will see what happens. There is still one game to play, and that is against Portugal. Portugal will not sit so deep. Ronaldo will want to score and space will open and they will play the ball. They have the players to play the ball. I’m confident that we can score more goals than today.”
It was clear from the opening minutes of the game that this Bulgarian side was going to try and make it impossible for France to score. Though the same back four from their four-nil defeat at the hands of Portugal lined up, the determination to avoid another thrashing saw two of their three central midfielders, predominantly Slavchev and Kostanidov, slot into ultra-defensive positions whenever the ball was given away. In possession, which was rare, and in attack, even rarer, one of the central trio would always sit back just in case.
Nevertheless, the French came out firing and within the first quarter of an hour had already registered 10 of their 41 shots on goal. Mbappe was first, followed by Griezmann and Ben Yedder. And so it continued, shot after shot after shot. Pogba lashed thunderbolts from deep; two of his shots rocking the goalposts. Kante even tried his luck after finding himself in a much more attacking position than he normally would. Unfortunately, Iliev was up to the task and pulled off a phenomenal save to deny Kante his first national team goal.
The crowd was thrilled by the superior attacking display of the French players as the first half wore on. Possession was not dominated by tiki-taka football, passing the ball around and trying to break up the defensive lines, as balls were consistently played deep into dangerous areas. However, where there would normally be a field of space for Mbappe and the likes to stream into, today there wasn’t. And on the off chance there was, the runs were devilishly countered. Another day and another referee might have seen two yellow cards turn into a red. But not today. Rather, the yellows were spread around for nearly all the Bulgarians to share by the end of the match.
The second half saw much of the same from both France and Bulgaria. But as France fired more and more shots at goal, the frustration rose and the accuracy dipped. (Of the nine shots that hit the posts, seven of those occurred in the first half.) Hugo Lloris could consistently be seen throwing his hands up in the air in disbelief at the missed opportunities while Deschamps was shouting at his players to slow down and keep the ball moving from side to side since there wasn’t much space going forward.
But despite the directives from the touchline, the instructions given to the substitutes, and the experience of the French players, too many were too quick to pull the trigger. Shots hit defenders and stayed out of the box or they didn’t really trouble the Bulgarian shot stopper who made a number of rudimentary saves.
Detractors of France’s counter-attacking style of play will surely point to this game as proof that the national team really isn’t as good as others make them out to be. Individually they are brilliant, but as a collective they still have much to learn. Then again, they did hit the post nine times and sometimes, as Deschamps said in the post-match press conference, “this is the nature of football”.
Time, as always, will tell. Besides, the pressure might not be so great if Portugal does manage to defeat the Germans, which is sure to be another cracker of a game this afternoon. However, if Germany do win, and are able to put two or three past their opponents, the final games of Group F will be tense to say the least.