Sweden is beaten by France 0-1 and Mbappe scored a good goal!
Today I was able to watch a football match again. I was deciding between France vs Sweden or Portugal vs Croatia but I choose the one with the best team, meaning France.
After seeing the results of both matches maybe choosing Portugal vs Croatia would have been a better decision, there were a total of 5 goals in the match with Portugal scoring 4 of those. It is a surprise to have Croatia losing that bad because in the last World Cup they reached the final while Portugal was nowhere close.
I decided to see France's match because I wanted to see what I believe to be the best national team at this moment and for the foreseeable future. I wanted to see Mbappe, Griezmann, Varane, Kante among many others. I also wanted to see the new French young star in the midfield named Camavinga but sadly he didn't play the match.
France wasn't as dominant as I was expecting it to be. Maybe this could be because this is just the first match of the season for them, but in the first half Sweden was a little bit better. In fact, before the goal, Sweden almost scored and I still cannot believe how they missed that chance.
France didn't have many opportunities, Giroud is still the center striker despite the fact he is already 33 years old. I think France should start using a younger player because I doubt Giroud will be able to remain competitive for the next 2 years. Let's remember that next summer we have the European Championship and in 2022 there is the World Cup.
Trying to win those tournaments with a striker that would be 34 and 35 years old each year might not be the best choice. In fact, he will be 36 years old, not 35, in the World Cup of 2022 because his birthday is on September and the World Cup of that year will be played in the winter not in the summer. I wonder how many national teams have won the World Cup with a 36yo striker? Mbappe and Griezmann are younger of course, especially Mabppe but such an old striker will probably become counterproductive at some point in the near future.
If Ousmane Dembele overcomes his injuries and is able to maintain a competitive level he might be a better choice even though he isn't a central striker. I don't know what combination of strikers France will use in the next few years but I doubt Giroud will be present.
Anyways, in today's match, I was expecting more from France but they still won. The only goal was from Mbappe, he played as a left-wing and the goal resulted from an individual play he made from the left side of the field. He had some luck when he was dribbling the defenses but his definition was good. Despite this good goal, I think Mbappe hasn't recovered fully from his previous injury. He is not in his prime yet. Griezmann had a grey match and he even missed a penalty in the last minute. Bad match for him but the season is just starting.
Tomorrow I will probably watch Switzerland vs Germany :]