Real Madrid’s talisman and new number 9, Kylian Mbappe, captained France against Italy in the UEFA Nations League group stage match. The former PSG man was the only Madridista involved with France in this international break after Aurelien Tchouameni and Ferland Mendy both pulled out of the squad last minute due to injury.
The 25-year-old forward played the entire 90 minutes and looked bright at the start of the game but his influence waned off as the game went on much like his country’s performance. France took the lead inside 13 seconds but looked lackluster from that point on. Italy equalized in the 30th minute via Federico Dimarco and scored twice in the second half thanks to some absymal defending from France. France couldn’t really get going after the goal, taking five shots in the second half with none on target compared to Italy’s four on target out of five with two goals.
Mbappe could only register two shots in the entire game with just one on target in the entire game and looked largely anonymous. He wasn’t able to create much threat via his dribbles either during the game. He couldn’t win many of his duels either on the forgettable night.
France’s next test will be against Belgium at home on Monday night and they hope to bounce back in the points table after a poor start to the campaign which sees them in third position in the group early on. Belgium come into this game on the back of a 3-1 win over Israel and will look to continue their positive start.
