France 1-0 Germany
France opened their Euro account on Tuesday night with a telling win over Germany in a pulsating Group F clash in Munich.
It was the biggest game of Euro 2020 so far and it lived up to expectations as the World Champions played some extravagant attacking football and the hosts put a shift in to try to get a result. France went ahead when Mats Hummels put through his own net mid way through the first half and that turned out to be enough, though Les Bleus had two goals ruled out for offside and hit the post in a frantic second half.
At SBOTOP odds of 2.69 to win France were good value for three points, while Germany need to find some inspiration to get a foothold in the tournament.
Highlights of the game
These two giants of world football spent the first ten minutes feeling each other out, and when Joshua Kimmich picked up an early yellow card that gave Kylian Mbappe encouragement, and the PSG man began to run at the Germany defence, taking a shot which Manuel Neuer palmed away. And as they began to control the game Les Bleus should have had their opener when Antoine Griezmann swung in a perfect corner which Paul Pogba headed over from point blank range. But the Manchester United man made amends, on 20 minutes, to launch the attack which did produce a goal. He chipped a searching ball over to the left flank where Lucas Hernandez picked it up and smashed a low cross in which bounced off Mats Hummels’ shin and into the roof of the net.
Germany woke up and had a couple of free kick chances in quick succession, but Toni Kroos missed them both, firing the first into the defensive wall and the second over the bar. France continued to pass the ball around with poise and broke at speed but struggled to create an opening and Germany had another chance which Ilkay Gundgan fired wide.
France had a great opportunity to double their lead at the start of the second half when they broke at speed; Adrien Rabiot had a square pass for a tap in for Griezmann, but he shot from the angle and hit the post. At the other end Serge Gnabry hammered a shot into the ground which bounced up and inches over the bar.
Mid way through the second half Mbappe showed his word class talent, collecting the ball on the left side of the penalty area and mesmerising three defenders before curling his shot into the far corner but…the offside flag belatedly went up. And as the game became more stretched Mbappe was clean through again but Hummels just managed to get a vital foot in before the French striker pulled the trigger.
Karim Benzema thought he’d bagged the second after another lightning break, when he smashed in from Mbappe’s pass but this time VAR ruled it out for offside earlier in the move.
Key statistics
The Euro 2020 betting odds back France to win the tournament at odds of 5.50 and Didier Deschamps’ side showed enough, away to tough opponents, to justify that position.
Les Bleus are cruising in a good run of form, winning the last five games and scoring ten unanswered goals, and they are now unbeaten in six consecutive games on German soil.
Add to that the fact that France are unbeaten in their last 17 competition games, winning 14 of those, and we can see which team is on everybody’s radar.
What’s next?
So the first round of games at Euro 2020 is complete and we’ve already seen some spectacular action. Romelu Lukaku’s double for Belgium against Russia on Saturday installed the Inter man as favourite to win the Golden Boot (as at Monday night), and then Cristiano Ronaldo matched him in Portugal’s 3-0 win in Hungary.
Group F is back in action on Saturday when France play Hungary and Germany take on Portugal. Deschamps will prepare his team impeccably to face the Hungarians who, beaten 3-0 by a late Portuguese onslaught on Tuesday, will be desperate to stay in the competition. Les Bleus should have far too much quality for the Magyars and with three points already in the bag they will be keen to press on.
Ronaldo’s late double was the perfect start for Portugal’s talisman and it will be difficult for Germany to keep him, and his attacking compatriots, at bay; but now Joachim Low’s men desperately need a result.
As the Euro 2020 results roll in the groups are beginning to take shape and there is no margin for error in the second round of matches.
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