A couple of days before the World Cup quarter-final clash between France and England, when Kyle Walker was being asked about his impending duel against Kylian Mbappe, the defender was quick to point out that the defending champions were not just about one man.
“It’s also about (Antoine) Griezmann and (Olivier) Giroud,” he warned. Having played enough top-level football, Walker knew that these were the players who could ruin your plans on a day when you think you might have an answer to every question your rivals would ask.
As things panned out at the Al Bayt Stadium on Saturday night, it’s not the 23-year-old Mbappe whose marauding speed blew away England. It’s the guile of Griezmann, 31, and the opportunism of Giroud, 36, which made the difference. That after England, for the better part of the match, dominated the defending champions.
With Walker negating the Mbappe threat barring an odd occasion when the French superstar zoomed past his marker like those 5.6 litres RAMs on the Doha streets, Bukayo Saka was making life miserable for the likes of Aurelien Tchouameni, Rafael Varane, Dayot Upamecano and Theo Fernandez. The scoreline read 1-1 and France were finding it difficult to cope with their rivals’ pace.
Twelve minutes to fulltime, the old guard of Les Bleus thought to have a tango. Griezmann enticingly curled in a centre into the England box and Giroud beat Harry Maguire in the air. A powerful header crashed into the net. “Grizi (as Griezmann is called by teammates) gave me a fantastic ball. I am very proud,” Giroud said at the post-match news conference.
It was Giroud’s 53rd goal for France and Griezmann, who hasn’t scored till now in Qatar, had his third assist. In the first goal too, it was his pass that opened up space for Tchouameni.
To think of it, Giroud would not have been getting much game-time if Karim Benzema was fit and Tchouameni would have been on the bench had Paul Pogba not been ruled out of the World Cup with an injury. In the middle of all these injury crises, one thing remained constant for coach Didier Deschamps — his continuous faith in Griezmann, the player.
Deschamps knew that to repeat the Moscow feat achieved four years ago, he needed this man in the heart of everything France would do on the field. As we saw on Saturday, Griezmann singlehandedly destroyed England. Deschamps did not mention his favourite player’s name after the match but what he said was significant. “In matches like these, experience counts.”
It was vintage Griezmann on display. Linking up with the front three of Mbappe, Giroud and Ousmane Dembele and even then, he had time to track back to help out Tchouameni and Rabiot. It might be that lack of game time for Atletico Madrid — thanks to a bizarre deal between Barcelona and Atletico — has given him just that extra bit of freshness. At the team hotel, quite fittingly, Griezmann led the after-match party.
The French Football Federation shared scenes of the jubilant celebrations on Twitter with the caption: “We don’t want to go home, we’re good here!”. The taunt could not be missed.
France’s next big test will be against the defensive qualities of Morocco. And to repeat Brazil’s feat in 1962 of winning back-to-back World Cups, Griezmann will be the man they will be looking forward to.
