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Didier Deschamps did not want to answer a question on the eve of this match to know if France could become champion, with a man who knows what it takes to win a World Cup who stubbornly refuses to look too far. Deschamps, however, will be able to avoid this subject only long after France has overtaken Uruguay, thanks to the superb header of Raphaël Varane and a terrible mistake of Fernando Muslera, to reach the semi-finals of the Coupe du World for the first time since 2006.
Argentina and now Uruguay have been dispatched en route to the last four and, for the remaining teams, it seems that France still has a lot to do . What is clear is that the last thing they need is to give them a hand, but that is exactly what Uruguay has done here.
Uruguayan goalkeeper, Muslera, who gave France its second goal when it allowed Antoine Griezmann's speculative shot to cross it. The shot went a bit down but Muslera, like everyone in the stadium, knew that he should have done a routine rescue after getting two hands to the ball. Óscar Tabárez, their coach, may be encouraged by another tournament when they have outgrown their weight, but he will also wonder what could have been if Edinson Cavani had not been ruled out with a calf injury. How Uruguay missed it.
France knew exactly what to expect. Uruguay had conceded a goal in its previous seven matches and would never give France the space that Argentina was offering him. Uruguay has formed two narrow banks of four whenever France has had possession and the question was how they could find a way through. For 39 minutes, they struggled to find an answer, but then a weakness was unveiled.
Pepe had punished Uruguay from a set-piece last Saturday and France did exactly the same thing. The frustration from the point of view of Uruguay is that the free kick was given so casually. Rodrigo Bentancur was caught deep in the Uruguayan side and, desperate to prevent Corentin Tolisso from escaping, shot him recklessly, leading to a free kick in a dangerous position on the left.
Griezmann approached the ball, withdrew and then left before throwing a free kick that seemed to surprise Uruguay, perhaps because of stuttering in his tracks. Varane, who has successfully completed his career, managed to convince Cristhian Stuani to send a superb head to the far corner
It was a formidable head and, from a neutral point of view, exactly what needed this quarterfinal. Until this point, it was a game of failures with France trying to make more aggressive moves. There was a rush of excitement inside the stadium when Kylian Mbappé was on the ball, but the teenager was too fast for his own teammates at a time. A beautiful pass from Paul Pogba, beautifully slipped inside Diego Laxalt, encouraged Mbappé to jump behind the left-back. Effortlessly, Mbappe accepted the invitation and headed for the line to cut the ball, but the rest of the French attack caught his breath, trying not to keep up the pace.
Mbappé could and should have put France ahead sooner. Olivier Giroud nodded over the goal but Mbappé, unmarked and eight meters from the finish, seemed to have misunderstood his jump and his head passed over the goal. Otherwise, France, despite all its possession, has created little until the goal of opening, which says as much about the lack of imagination of their offensive game as the resistance of the game. ;Uruguay.
The challenge for Uruguay was to find a way to respond – something that they almost did in a few minutes. Martín Cáceres, the right-back of Uruguay, smashed Lucas Torreira's free-kick from a powerful header that seemed destined to the bottom of the area until Hugo Lloris, throwing to his right, makes a magnificent stop. Diego Godin was the first to react to the lost ball but fired a shot from the left foot, a few meters from the target, while Lloris, climbing at his feet, did his best to put the center defender off. Even taking into account that the angle was slightly against him, Godin should have scored.
Tabarez withdrew the inefficient Stuani early in the second half, replacing him with Maximiliano Gómez, but the damage was about to be done on the other end of the field. Griezmann, in space and 25 meters after receiving a pass pass from Tolisso, hit a left foot shot that Muslera seemed to have covered. Only the goalkeeper of Uruguay knows how he ended up in the back of the net. It was a horrible mistake.
The game was threatening to become ugly after a scrum caused by the fact that Mbappé made too much light contact with Cristian Rodríguez. Mbappé is a wonderful talent, but he did not himself benefit from his game and ended up being booked after Argentine referee Néstor Pitana regained control. It is not that France seemed agitated afterwards.
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