For a long time, it looked as though France were heading for defeat against Belgium – until Zinedine Zidane brought on his substitutes. And they delivered: Olise and Doué literally tore Belgium apart in the closing stages.
A week after Olise’s winning goal in Brussels, France invited Belgium to a rematch at the Stade de France in Paris. Les Bleus manager Zinedine Zidane made sweeping changes, replacing his entire starting line-up with the exception of Dembélé, which also meant that game-changers such as Olise and Doué were rested for the time being. Meanwhile, Belgium’s manager Mark van Bommel made six changes to his starting line-up: among others, captain Tielemans and De Bruyne were absent due to suspension.
The match got off to a slow start; although the French initially had more of the play, they couldn’t break through against the compactly organised visitors from their neighbouring country. Instead, Belgium, with captain Lukaku leading the line, remained alert throughout and worked their way into the game really well. Lukaku had a shot on goal (11th minute), but nothing else happened for the time being.
Lavia’s pass breaks France down
It was only when Lavia had a stroke of genius in the 35th minute and sent Lukebakio through that the French defence was suddenly breached – and Belgium took the lead thanks to the former Bundesliga player. And that lead held for a long time. Les Bleus struggled; although Dembelé in particular made a few attempts, he wasn’t having the best of days. On the other hand, credit must also be given to the Belgian defence, which kept the French attack – led by the aforementioned Dembelé, Lepaul and Barcola – in check.
After the break, Dembelé tried his luck with a shot (53’), before Lepaul narrowly missed the equaliser (59’). And then, suddenly, the French really turned up the pressure, largely due to the introduction of Doué and, in particular, Bayern’s Olise.
First, Doué broke the deadlock with his equaliser from a turn (77’), before the Red Devils were completely overwhelmed by the French side’s enthusiasm. Olise raced up the right flank tirelessly and set up Cherki, who scored the winning goal for France less than four minutes after the 1–1 draw, beating Vandevoordt from close range (81′).
Olise does as he pleases – and scores a brace
From then on, there was no stopping them – especially not for Olise: within three minutes, the Munich player bagged a brace, with Doué providing the assist on both occasions. First, the Parisian played a fine pass from the right flank to the FCB attacker, who eventually finished with a bit of luck (88′). Then a through ball from Doué found Olise in the penalty area; he nutmegged Vandevoordt and sealed the 4–1 victory. Ultimately, Olise and Doué made all the difference and have brought France a good deal closer to the Nations League quarter-finals.
Les Bleus are away to Italy on 12 November at 8.45 pm, whilst Belgium play in Turkey a few hours earlier (6 pm).
