{"id":1122,"date":"2018-07-01T14:37:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T09:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/?p=1122"},"modified":"2018-07-01T14:38:51","modified_gmt":"2018-07-01T09:08:51","slug":"five-things-we-learned-france-4-3-argentina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/2018\/07\/01\/five-things-we-learned-france-4-3-argentina\/","title":{"rendered":"Five things we learned: France 4-3 Argentina"},"content":{"rendered":"

France have ended Argentina and Lionel Messi\u2019s hopes of World Cup glory with a 4-3 win in a thrilling round of 16 match to start the knockout rounds.<\/p>\n

Antoine Griezmann opened the scoring from the spot when Argentina came back into the game with goals from Angel Di Maria and Gabriel Mercado.<\/p>\n

But the match swung out of Argentina\u2019s favour when Benjamin Pavard\u2019s superb volley brought the game level before Kylian Mbappe\u2019s brace sealed France\u2019s place in the quarter-final.<\/p>\n

Here are five things we learned from Kazan:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1.Argentina’s Backline Collapsed under French Attack<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Argentina\u2019s poor defending that almost resulted in a shock group stage exit. Their back four failed once again to live up to their attacking prowess with silly mistakes and bad organisation the reason behind three of France\u2019s four-goal haul.<\/p>\n

Rojo was the toast of the town following his 86th minute winner against Nigeria to send Argentina through to meet France, but less that 15 minutes into their last-16 clash, he\u2019d already cancelled out his heroics.<\/p>\n

Giving away a penalty so early in a knockout game is a critical error, and to do so in such a foolish way will be the painful memory he\u2019ll take away from this tournament.<\/p>\n

Armani Franco\u2019s positioning was suspect when Benjamin Pavard powered in a stunner of a strike. He could also have done better with regards to Mbappe\u2019s 1st goal. Going forward, Argentina needs to attend to the goalkeeping department.<\/p>\n

Rumours of an unsettled Argentine camp have been a hot talking point throughout their World Cup campaign, and the truth will likely not be too far removed.<\/p>\n

He chose his 15th different line up to face France, and has still not found a system that works – Argentina needs change.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

2. Kylian Mbappe is destined for Bigger Things<\/strong><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Kylian Mbappe just announced himself to world football on its biggest stage. Marcus Rojo couldn\u2019t deal with his storming run from deep in the French half and that was just a sign of things to come. He netted twice in the second half with clinical finishing and caused plenty of issues for the Argentine defence.<\/p>\n

I<\/span>t is one of the gifts of being the most talented teenager footballer in the world that Kylian Mbappe makes fast defenders look slow and slow defenders look ridiculous, although in the end, this was about bigger things than just a first half demolition of poor old Marcos Rojo.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old\u2019s savage turn of speed that won France the penalty for their first goal saw him flash before our eyes in real time while simultaneously the careers of half a dozen Argentinian defenders and midfielders were flashing before theirs. One of those moments that every old pro recognises when the legs are getting slower, the youngsters are getting quicker and the best they can hope for is to kick him before he reaches the area.<\/p>\n

It was an incredible performance for a 19-year-old playing in his first knockout game of a major tournament but a more organised defence will be much savvier to his game. Regardless, he’s one to watch in the next round.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

3.Argentina’s midfield lacked creativity<\/b><\/p>\n

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En route to the first goal, the relative ease with which Mbappe moved from his half into the Argentine penalty box was very worrying. The midfield trio of Javier Mascherano, Enzo Perez and Ever Banega were non-existent as Mbappe drove through the middle. The defence couldn\u2019t also cope with his pace as Mbappe put up a man of the match performance. It was as if Didier Deschamps instructed Mbappe to run at the Argentines anytime he had the ball.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

4. France Midfield showed Pace, Penetration and Power:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Paul Pogba put in some good passes to cut Argentina open, especially on the right flank but his over elaborations on the ball was not a beautiful sight to see. Going forward, the dabbing maestro must learn to keep things cool and simple.<\/p>\n

That 4th goal from Mbappe was a beauty. The build-up play was very quick and it worked to devastating effect. There were also some instances in the first half where the Argentine defence was cut open by some quick thinking from the French midfielders.<\/p>\n

N\u2019Golo Kante and Blaise Matuidi worked hand in hand to keep Lionel Messi quiet. It was a superb work from these two as they man marked the little magician, closed him down very quickly and prevented him from performing his magic.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

5<\/strong>.Messi\u00a0<\/strong>cannot be blamed for Argentina’s Early Exit:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The plan was to overload the midfield area since he was wary of France\u2019s brilliant midfielders. In effect, Argentina played without a recognized striker for long parts of the game. Argentina had 62% possession in the 1st half but due to lack of attacking options upfront, there was no movement upfront. The Argentines only managed 1 shot in the entire first half. He brought on Aguero but it was a little too late. It was difficult to understand why Sampaoli couldn\u2019t get the likes of Paolo Dybala, Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain to play together.<\/p>\n

We haven\u2019t seen the magic we\u2019ve come to expect from Lionel Messi in Russia, which would be a sad way for him to say goodbye to World Cup football. As a football talisman, not only for Argentina but for the entire game, the expectation he carries on his shoulders at a World Cup must be a huge burden.<\/p>\n

It was clear during Argentina\u2019s second group game against Croatia; as the anthems rang out Lionel Messi looked visibly worn out as he rubbed his forehead. He\u2019ll turn 35 years-old-old by the time Qatar 2022 rolls around, Argentina\u2019s hopes will likely rest on their newly emerging stars.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

France have ended Argentina and Lionel Messi\u2019s hopes of World Cup glory with a 4-3 win in a thrilling round of 16 match to start the knockout rounds. Antoine Griezmann opened the scoring from the spot when Argentina came back into the game with goals from Angel Di Maria and Gabriel Mercado. But the match swung out of Argentina\u2019s favour when Benjamin Pavard\u2019s superb volley brought the game level before Kylian Mbappe\u2019s brace sealed France\u2019s place in the quarter-final. Here are five things we learned from Kazan:   1.Argentina’s Backline Collapsed under French Attack Argentina\u2019s poor defending that almost resulted in a shock group stage exit. Their back four failed … Continue reading “Five things we learned: France 4-3 Argentina”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":1128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[389,444,406,441,433,442,388,443],"class_list":["post-1122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-angel-di-maria","tag-antoine-griezmann","tag-argentina","tag-france","tag-france-vs-argentina-10-a-m-et-kazan-fox-saturday","tag-kylian-mbappe","tag-lionel-messi","tag-pavard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}