Simon Bank of Thierry Henry: "How does it feel?"

S: T PETERSBURG. France wins, France qualifies for the World Cup finals, but Thierry Henry loses and is eliminated.

Is this strange?

He should not do it anymore.

He leaves the bench directly and divides the five good years; Thank you for this good work, thank you for this dream. Then Thierry Henry continues on the plan to console the Belgian slap player, he puts his arm around Kevin De Bruyne, slapping Romelu Lukaku on his shoulder.

Then comes Hugo Lloris – and it will be a long hug.

Thierry Henry, one of the top four national teams in France, suddenly went on the other side this time.

How would he feel when he heard Marseljäsen? What would he think when he went to sit on the bench with a Belgian flag on the roof?

Well, I could have given a ruble or two to know exactly what Thierry Henry was thinking.

But what I really wonder is that he knows when he sees Kylian Mbappé, 19, speeding up and running through the sound trap.

It's been almost twenty days since Henry was twenty, Titi world champion. It looked exactly like that …

– This is not at all what they are, as Robert Pirès told Paris this week.

And he should know it

In vain for the Belgian generation

It's a World Cup when the great breakthrough of Russian football prototyping was made by a boy born and raised in Spain when their last goal was made by a Brazilian passport player. In this semifinal, more than half of the players could have played for other national teams. The biggest star of Belgium was born in Lille, the biggest star of France grew up in Spain and declared to feel half Uruguayan. World 2018, World Cup 2018.

Thierry Henry is still an icon in France, but he is a television expert in England and an attack coach in Belgium, and this is not strange.

Is not it Martin Hansson? maybe even sitting on the second bench. When Titi took the ball with his World Cup qualifier against Ireland in 2009 – and Hansson was the only one in the world not to see it – it was the beginning of a complicated relationship between Henry and France.

Then Knysna, the strike, the shame and the quarterly talks with Sarkozy arrive at the Elysee. A distance.

And now he sits on the other side and has seen a twenty-year younger variation of himself by folding this match to the advantage of France.

It's not as if I did not know that we would see a gang of pretty soccer players habila playing this game, no one had calculated that, depending on the market value, they were launching eighteen billion crowns in the tracks. But I've always been amazed at times.

Hello, Mbappé is already an incredible player! Is Eden Hazard so fast in her changes of direction! Does Antoine Griezmann have that kind of genius when he draws his geometric shapes with his feet!

So beautiful football. In vain for this Belgian generation.

Griezmann's best match until now

What did they fall for?

Mousa Dembélé and Axel Witsel were dismissed by the three strikers from France who were shooting softly in the play, so Belgium had to play again and again. France managed to manage their defense game with eight players (Matuidi and Kanté move from seven to eight), and they constantly had this threat to Mbappé.

There was the basis of the match picture: controlled soil France, an experienced Belgium who was playing around.

The rest concerned high-level football. Fixed situations – and exception players.

Belgium's best player (Fellaini) did not reach the ball when Samuel Umtiti dubbed him 1-0. And the super player of France was more super than Belgium. Mbappé Gourcuff was bent over, played football and asked Vertonghen. Griezmann continues to score and has made his best match so far in the World Cup.

In Belgium, only Eden Hazard was the offensive hero who had a good day, and when Martinez sent everything he had offensively in the last half an hour, he was the only one. was like sacrificing the balance of the team. There was not much pressure, and when all was over, Thierry Henry turned around and kissed the French finalists.

Three years ago, in his role as television expert, he was asked if he thought that Arsenal could become a champion with Olivier Giroud as top scorer.

– No, said Henry. I do not think so.

Giroud had a hug tonight, too. He has never made Arsenal a champion, it could be good to win the World Cup with France.

11 July 2018 00:01