France drew with Poland on penalties. He had a great desire to go on the pitch, says coach Deschamps about the injured Mbappé

The last match of Group D started on Tuesday at 6 pm. France and Poland met there. France was clearly the favourite, while Poland had no points and a score of 2:5. However, great goalkeeping and penalties on both sides ensured a 1:1 draw and France are now in second place in the group, while the Poles are out of the tournament.

Penalties on both sides

The Poles went into the match without goalkeeping legend Szczesny, who announced the end of his national team career. Skorupski came on for him and it must be said that he replaced him excellently. He cleared all the chances and was only not enough for Mbappé’s penalty.

It was in the 56th minute after a foul by Kiwiora. The French captain sent the keeper the other way and put his team in the lead. Not for long though, as Swiderski was fouled in the whitewash. The referee initially let play continue, but later went to look at the video and pointed to the penalty spot.

The ball was taken by Robert Lewandowski. The penalty wasn’t very good and Maignan caught it. However, the Polish captain immediately complained that Maignan was not standing on the goal line when the kick was taken and he was right. The penalty was repeated, and this time Lewandowski kicked it better and Maignan had no chance. No more goals were scored and the match ended 1-1.

Mbappé’s return to the pitch as seen by the coach

Mbappé missed the last game due to a badly broken nose. However, he wanted to play against the Poles, even though the French were already certain to advance. “Kylian wants to play when he can. He had a great desire to go on the pitch,” coach Didier Deschamps said.

“Despite everything he went through, I think his legs were good. He needs to get used to the mask a little bit because the sweat runs into his eyes underneath. He looked good,” Deschamps said after the game, praising his charge.

But France has struggled with efficiency in attack. Despite being second in the group, Mbappé’s penalty was the first goal scored by a France player as Austria had scored an own goal in the previous game.

“We create a lot of chances. Sometimes you have two and you convert both. We had about seven against Poland, but the goalkeeper made a great save. I would be worried if we didn’t have chances,” the French coach commented on the problem.

“We lacked efficiency. But I trust the strikers completely. When we needed them, they always did it. We have a great team and a great team will rise up,” the midfielder encouraged Camavingo.

Source: EURO 2024, UEFA