Is the French team strong or not strong, can anyone answer?

After the group stage of EURO 2024, the French team scored 2 goals. But what is noteworthy is that the blue team only scored 1 of the 2 goals above, the remaining goal was due to the opponent putting the ball into their own net.

The French team’s scorer until after the group stage was Kylian Mbappe, after a penalty kick against Poland. This means that France have not scored any goals from “open ball” situations. This is a big surprise for a team with so many attacking stars, including Mbappe, Griezmann, Giroud, Dembele, Marcus Thuram, Kingsley Coman…

Mbappe with nose mask

France are not the only team to have faded after the group stage. Italy and England have also been lacklustre. But unlike France, under Gareth Southgate, England have often been criticised but have also progressed very far in major tournaments.

The more different the Italian team, the more difficult it is to get through the first stage of major tournaments like the World Cup or EURO, the more fearsome they are, the harder they are to beat in the knockout stages.

The French team (in blue) is being doubted about its strength.

The French team, on the other hand, only go far in tournaments where they start strongly, but when the team in blue starts poorly, they are often eliminated early.

For example, when France won the 2018 World Cup, reached the final of the 2022 World Cup, and reached the final of EURO 2016, coach Didier Deschamps' team played brilliantly in the group stage, quickly won tickets to the next round, and even quickly led their own group, after only 2 matches.

In contrast, in the 2002 World Cup and the 2010 World Cup, France struggled through each match and were eliminated in the group stage. Or in the 2012 and 2020 EUROs, the French team gradually made it through the group stage, before being eliminated immediately after, in the first knockout round (in EURO 2012, the first knockout round was the quarter-finals, and in EURO 2020, the first knockout round was the round of 16).

Even in EURO 2012 and 2020, the French team's scoring record was not as bad as their EURO 2024 performance. In 2012 and 2020, the French team scored 3 goals in each tournament after the group stage. As mentioned, unlike the Italian team, each stage can use different playing styles. The French team usually only plays one style of play that was prepared before the tournament.

If the players in the hands of coach Deschamps cannot optimize the prepared playing style, France will be easier to predict than Italy and easier to predict than the Italian team. The images of Mbappe, Dembele or Griezmann from the beginning of EURO 2024 until now, are not optimizing the playing style that coach Didier Deschamps has set for the French team, causing them to struggle in the group stage.

The 1-1 draw with Poland on the evening of June 25th put France in a very difficult group in the knockout stage. This group will include Spain, Portugal, Germany and possibly Belgium. Of course, in terms of strength, France is still a team that even the above opponents do not dare to underestimate.

But anyway, playing against a French team with poor form, in the context of Mbappe and his teammates being unlucky in front of the opponent's goal, is still "easier" than the opposite situation.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/euro-2024-doi-tuyen-phap-manh-hay-khong-manh-ai-tra-loi-noi-khong-185240626134447648.htm