October 08, (THEWILL) – After an enthralling game at Juventus Stadium, France came back from two goals down to beat Belgium 3-2 and set up a meeting with Spain in the UEFA Nations League final.
Les Bleus were down and out at the halftime break, behind 2-0 following goals from Yannick Carrasco and Romelu Lukaku. But a stirring comeback secured their position in Sunday’s showpiece final, helping to erase the terrible memories of their early exit from the European Championships.
With only four minutes on the clock, Didier Deschamps’ team got off to a poor start, with Kevin De Bruyne firing a warning shot that Hugo Lloris did well to keep out. However, the France captain was beaten twice in four first-half minutes as the Red Devils moved up a gear.
When Lloris failed to save Lukaku’s neat attempt from the angle, he was still reeling after being caught out at his near post by Carrasco’s daisy-cutter and it was all the Belgians needed to go into the interval with a 2-0 lead.
After the break, France played with much more vigour, and when Kylian Mbappe set up Antoine Griezmann on a plate, there were no other expectations but a netter. Yet, the Atletico Madrid forward failed to finish.
Karim Benzema, on the other hand, made no such error moments later, swivelling to make room for the shot and rifling it into the bottom corner to cut the lead in half. Griezmann made atonement for his egregious error by winning a penalty, which was converted by the ice-cold Mbappe to draw level on scores.
The drama, on the other hand, was far from over. With only three minutes remaining, Belgium felt they had won it with a goal against the run of play, but the video assistant referee (VAR) determined that Lukaku was offside.
In the final act of the drama, Paul Pogba’s spectacular free-kick struck the crossbar, but Theo Hernandez was at hand to slam home the winner for France – his first goal for his nation – to cap a very dramatic and victorious comeback.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
