The winners and losers as Areola’s heroics help World Champions France avoid defeat in Germany

In an intense night of football, Germany and World Champions France played out a 0-0 draw.

The match started slow but built to a quick and intense climax, but still no one could find a goal as the UEFA Nations League got off to an inauspicious start. Who were the winners and losers?

Winner: Alphonse Areola

Hugo Lloris has been France’s undisputed no. 1 for what feels like forever now, even though he hasn’t been a truly outstanding presence for them in a while. At the World Cup he produced a couple of big saves but was otherwise average at best and even managed to kick the ball into his own net off Mario Mandzukic in the final (the goal was pointless but that doesn’t change anything).

Alphonse Areola is a superb goalkeeper, probably as good as Lloris already. No one seems to appreciate him; this game was his debut for France and PSG decided to replace him with a clearly past-it Gianluigi Buffon for some reason. Yet Areola showed tonight why Lloris shouldn’t be undisputed no. 1 and Buffon should head east or west already.

Areola was colossal in the French goal. He was calm and in control for an hour or so, then when Germany stepped their game up at the end of the game, Areola did the same. The Germans began peppering the French goal with shots from all angles, but Areola was constantly equal to them. One save from Mathias Ginter was particularly special.

Loser: Full-backs

When Germany won the World Cup in 2014, they did so with a centre-back at left-back (and Philipp Lahm at right-back). When Lahm retired, they switched gears and entered the 2018 World Cup with two full-backs: Joshua Kimmich and Jonas Hector. That didn’t work, mostly because their midfield balance was no longer able to cover for Kimmich’s forward runs, and Germany crashed out early.

Jogi Low’s response to that was to enter the France game with no full-backs. Their back four was four centre-backs, and as a result Germany were somewhat flat. France essentially handed them the initiative and Germany didn’t really do much with it until late in the day; and part of this was clearly because the full-backs were centre-backs. Even though they moved forward, they rarely went closer than 35 yards to the French goal and one can only wonder how potent the Germany attack could have been with actual full-backs on the field.

Meanwhile France also had two centre-backs playing as full-backs, but unlike with the Germans, these two young players had the attacking sensibility to actually function in the final third. Although today they didn’t really do much of that and poor Benjamin Pavard got absolutely ripped to bits by Timo Werner (and kicked to be bits by Antonio Rudiger) while on the side, Benjamin Mendy, one of the most dominant and blisteringly brilliant full-backs in the world, must be baffled as to how he is being left out.

Winner: Toni Kroos

Toni Kroos is world-class with the ball at his feet, yet in terms of his defensive contribution he leaves a lot to be desired. When Germany won the World Cup, he starred as a no. 10 ahead of two midfielders, notably Bastian Schweinsteiger. Once Schweinsteiger retired from international football, Kroos assumed his role at the base of midfield.

Except Kroos struggles at the base of midfield, defensively at least. This was a huge factor in Germany’s elimination at the 2018 World Cup, and there seemed no real solution given Ilkay Gundogan is the only German capable of replicating Schweinsteiger’s skill-set and injury has rendered him unreliable, even if he is fit. But this is why Kroos is a winner.

Tonight against France, the German system of playing a string of centre-backs across a back four and rarely having them advance into the final third was clearly designed with Kroos in mind. With this new safety net, Kroos’ poor transition defence wasn’t an issue and he and Joshua Kimmich (another beneficiary of this system) were able to pass their hearts out in midfield whilst making forward advances.

Interestingly enough, Germany really began to dominate the game late in proceedings after Ilkay Gundogan came on and provided Kroos with even more back-up in midfield. Could that be the way forward for Germany? If so it will only benefit Kroos even more.

Loser: Olivier Giroud

You have to feel sorry for Olivier Giroud at this point. Obviously he is a very talented player and he serves a key purpose in the French attack when Les Bleus are playing a proactive game where they see a lot of the ball. However due to Didier Deschamps’ pragmatism, France often play deep and on the counter-attack, using Kylian Mbappé’s pace as their primary weapon.

That renders Giroud almost useless. For vast swathes of the World Cup and nearly all of his minutes tonight against Germany, Giroud was playing in a deep role, wandering around applying some pressure and generally supporting Mbappé. He was poor, having little effect on the match. It was quite telling that less than 60 seconds after he was taken off, his replacement Ousmane Dembélé played a key part in a superb back-to-front counter-attack.

Winner: Kylian Mbappé

This guy… this freakin’ guy. Imagine being a defender having to face up to this kid? A teenager who is not only supremely skilled, lots of kids are skilled, but this kid is so absurdly confident that he’s ignoring his own manager’s calls to keep it simple and two out of every three passes are flicked or embellished in unique and captivating ways.

It’s almost as thought Mbappé knows that Deschamps has France play boring football and so feels the need to be the one that entertains the crowd. And what must be ridiculous for his defenders is that the flicks and tricks come off! This little kid has an absurd sense of swagger and a stupidly high skill level that he can do pretty much whatever he wants, that’s got to be annoying if you’re his opponent but imagine how he must feel? A world champion at 19 playing football like that? He’s probably smiling 24/7.

Loser: Didier Deschamps

When Didier Deschamps shut up shop and has France grind their way through games in the World Cup, the pragmatism could be excused because it was a short tournament, seven games, and France just needed to find a way to win those seven games. They didn’t need to be pretty, they needed to be effective.

But now the World Cup is over, why are France still playing that way? Obviously the Nations League is still competitive, but it’s a league format not a short run of cup games. And also France are World Champions, everyone will be looking to them as an example and if they keep playing this dry and defensive football their run as champions will be boring and they will suffer when the time comes to defend their crown, as they will not have evolved at all.

This stagnation has impacted on all previous World Cup winners, three the four most recent of which (Brazil, Spain and Germany) played more attractive football than France did. Deschamps’ next task is to make France fun to watch, because in doing so he will have evolved the side to the point where they will pose a whole new set of challenges for opponents.

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