Over the course of the last year, it feels like France have lost some of their momentum after winning the 2018 FIFA World Cup. With that being said the expectation has always been that they would walk through the rest of their European Championship qualifying group, but it doesn’t seem as if that’s going to be the case. Earlier tonight, Turkey defeated Les Bleus in what could prove to be a vitally important result in the qualifiers.
An odd evening
In the early stages of the game Antoine Griezmann headed wide in a decent opportunity, but apart from that, the French really weren’t themselves. They had a strong side out with eight of the starting XI starting the World Cup final against Croatia, and yet, they just didn’t seem to get going. At the very least you’d expect them to string together a few shots on target, but that didn’t prove to be the case.
At the half hour mark Turkey were able to take the lead, courtesy of a nice header from Kaan Ayhan. They didn’t let their foot off the pedal, with the popular Cengiz Under doubling their lead. They kept the kind of composure from that point on which you’d expect to see from France themselves, and yet, it was Turkey who looked like the world champions.
Not themselves
This game marked the first time in 10 years that the national side have failed to register a shot on target in a game, which is bizarre, especially when you consider the kind of form they were on just a few short years ago. It should also wake this French side up and make them realise that they need to improve massively before Euro 2020.
Turkey are now top of Group H with nine points from three games, with France sat in second place. France will now attempt to bounce back against Andorra which they should see as a game they should be winning fairly easily, whereas Turkey will play Iceland in what should be a pretty entertaining game. Either way, though, this game and result once again proves that anything can happen at this level.
Match Report
Turkey: Gunok (7.5), Celik (8), Ayhan (7.5), Demiral (9), Kaldrim (7), Tekdemir (7), Tokoz (7.5), Kahveci (7.5), Under (8), Karaman (6), Yilmaz (7), Tufan (6), Yazici (7), Omur (5.5)
France: Lloris (5.5), Pavard (5), Varane (6), Umtiti (5), Digne (5.5), Sissoko (5.5), Pogba (5), Mbappe (5), Matuidi (4.5), Griezmann (6), Giroud (6), Mendy (6), Coman (6), Ben Yedder (5.5)
Referee: Damir Skomina
Goals: Ayhan, Under
Yellow Cards: Demiral, Tekdemir, Umtiti, Coman
Red Cards: N/A
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