A narrow victory for France against Austria!
France ground out a 1-0 win over Austria on Monday as an own goal by defender Maximilian Woeber gave Didier Deschamps’ charges an unconvincing victory in their Euro 2024 opener. France were unable to press their advantage in the second half in Duesseldorf but Austria struggled to threaten at the other end. Kylian Mbappe burst clear shortly after the break but the France captain fired wide and came off in the 90th minute after a clash of heads left him bleeding from the nose.
Nicolas Seiwald made eight tackles today, the most by an Austrian player at a major tournament since Bernd Krauss made 10 against Northern Ireland in the 1982 World Cup.
Ralf Rangnick spoke to the media after Austria’s narrow defeat: “We created chances. Of course, France also created chances. Patrick Pentz, our goalkeeper, did a great job. I have no reproaches towards my teams. They didn’t always make the right decision, but let’s not forget who the opponents were.
“We lost the match. Let’s be fair, France had more chances and it was a deserved win. But until the last minute, we were in it. We put everything on the pitch. Now we have to look forward and try to win against Poland on Friday.”
Didier Deschamps spoke about Kylian Mbappe’s nose injury on French broadcaster TF1 following the match.
“Apparently the nose is not good at all,” he said. “So we’ll see. It’s obviously the negative point of the evening. Even if it’s just his nose it’s annoying for us.”
N’Golo Kanté has been named Player of the Match by UEFA.
UEFA’s Technical Observer Panel said: “He won a lot of balls, blocked Austria off in the middle of the pitch and played some good passes forward. Kanté also made an eye-catching covering challenge as the last man.”
