French national football team leader Kylian Mbappe will miss the remaining matches of the Euro 2024 group stage due to a broken nose. Sports discusses the level of distress among some of the tournament's main favorites.
Who will replace him? The French failed to roll the Austrians (1:0 in the first round) into the grass, but only in terms of a modest score. If you look at the game as a whole, France's superiority was obvious. Playing against a well-balanced team, they controlled the game and could have scored more — however, they will almost certainly spend everything they haven't spent in other matches.
But there is a nuance — the French will have to spend without their leader Mbappe. In the second half of the meeting with Austria, he went into a horse fight and stuck into his opponent. The result was a broken nose, replacement at the 90th minute and hospitalization. The media are reporting that he will miss the remaining two matches of the group stage, and that's at a minimum. It is quite possible that he will have to play in a protective mask until the end of the tournament.
Mbappe is one of the main candidates for the title of talent of the generation; he is an incredibly fast and technical forward, already titled at the club and national team level, despite his young age (25 years old). He recently signed a contract with Real Madrid, and in the future he is expected to become a club legend.
But it just so happens that for the French national team, even the loss of such a player does not amount to a blow below the belt. Didier Deschamps' team is currently perhaps the deepest in the world in terms of player selection. Whenever someone drops out, another one like him will take his place. Or even two.
Even if we consider only the attacking group, France has the clever Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele, who is quite close to Mbappe in style. There is Kingsley Coman and the eternal Olivier Giroud. There are guys a little younger and simpler. And if we choose the main character of the team at the moment, then it is generally the 33-year-old defensive midfielder N’Golo Kante, who came from the Saudi Arabian championship and unexpectedly showed that he is still the king of destruction.
X-Factor Deschamps still has the ability to attack down the flanks. You can line up under Giroud and throw it forward. You can play a positional attack and hope to break into weak spots — fortunately there is someone to break into and someone to pass to — be it Griezmann, or Kante, or Adrien Rabiot. And this is already more than most teams at this Euro.
At the group stage, the French still have to play with the Netherlands and Poland — powerful opponents, but generally passable. In a word, France will not have any difficulties in reaching the playoffs even without their main star, and then everything will depend on the bracket. In principle, even if Mbappe misses not only the group stage, but also part of the playoffs, they will still remain afloat. For the tri-colors, Kylian is more of an X-factor than a system-forming player, so his talents will be most clearly revealed in matches with equal opponents, which will take place towards the end of the tournament.
Euro 202421 June 2024 • start at 22:00Match has not started
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< br>Fans will have more chances to see Mbappe there. The President of the French Football Federation (FFF), Philippe Diallo, has already stated that the latest information in this regard is positive: «The news is quite encouraging, since in the short term he will not require surgery. As for his participation in the rest of the tournament, It’s a little premature to give any dates yet.”