On a humid night in Düsseldorf, France eased their way into this tournament with a controlled 1-0 defeat of a game but limited Austria. A first-half own goal settled the match. Otherwise Didier Deschamps’ team played within its limits and opened up the right side of Austria’s defence whenever Kylian Mbappé, who finished the game with a broken nose, stretched his legs.
Starting slowly, keeping the miles in your legs: this French team is settled enough to make these things feel like a point of strength. Not much has changed since Qatar. The shape was the familiar 4-3-3. This is still Total Deschamps, with athleticism and technical ease in every position, and Mbappé always held like a cocked right hand, a constant threat when he’s not an actual knockout punch.
By the end one thing seemed clear enough. The song remains the same. Basically someone is going to have to beat France. French victory will be the default at these Euros, as is generally the case these days, the thing that will happen unless something else explicitly gets in the way.
The Düsseldorf Arena is another of the Ruhr’s vast, humid, football hangers. After the travel chaos of England in Gelsenkirchen it was a relief to find a stadium that seemed unsurprised to find itself, of all things, staging an international tournament. At times at these Euros it has felt as though Germany is deliberately trying to break a stereotype. Stow your preconceptions. We definitely aren’t efficient. And the trains really don’t run on time.
At kick-off the Austrian end formed a stoic red wall. Opposite them France’s fans were a riot of tricolours. Marcus Thuram started alongside Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé. At the back William Saliba was next to Dayot Upamecano, a significant turn given Deschamps’ remarks about the Arsenal man “doing things I didn’t like” during his sublime form last season. Those things, whatever they were, now seem to be safely done.
