League of Nations: Italy and France neutralize each other

France and Italy parted in a draw (1-1) on Friday at the Stade de France, on the third day of Group A1 of the Nations League. The Blues, who were leading the score, were joined in the second half by an Italian team who returned to the game after a defensive error.

After a scoreless first period, France took the lead shortly after the break. Michael Olise found the fault on an action following a free kick, with a shot which ended its journey under the bar of the Italian goal, leaving no chance to Gianluigi Donnarumma.

The French then had several opportunities to make the break, but the Italian goalkeeper notably stood out against Désiré Doué, Ousmane Dembélé and Eduardo Camavinga. However, French domination did not materialize with a second goal.

Italy finally equalized in the 68th minute. Alessandro Bastoni took advantage of a French loss of ball during a restart to recover the ball, advance and deceive Mike Maignan. The Italians thus reduced the score to 1-1.

The end of the match was marked by the expulsion of Dayot Upamecano. The French defender received a second yellow card in the final minutes, leaving the Blues at ten for the end of the match. Despite this numerical inferiority, the two teams were unable to decide between themselves.

This result allows France to maintain the lead in group A1 with seven points, ahead of Belgium, which has six points after its victory against Turkey (3-0). Italy is in third place with four points, while Turkey remains pointless.

This meeting also constituted Zinédine Zidane’s first match at home at the head of the France team. The French coach had previously won his first two matches against Turkey and Belgium by the same score of 1-0.

In the other meeting of the group, Belgium won 3-0 against Turkey thanks in particular to a double from Kevin De Bruyne and a goal from Romelu Lukaku.