In Leipzig, a goalless draw that did not ignite in Kylian Mbappe’s absence saw France and the Netherlands advance to the round of 16 of the 2024 European Championship.
Only four days prior, in France’s opening 1-0 victory over Austria, the captain of the national team broke his nose. He spent the entire match on the substitute bench.
For the Netherlands, Xavi Simons’ goal was controversially disallowed, and for France, Antoine Griezmann squandered two excellent opportunities.
After sharing the spoils, both teams are tied for first place in Group D with four points, one more than Austria, who defeated Poland 3-1 earlier on Friday.
The last games of the section are scheduled for Tuesday. France will play the Poles, while the Netherlands will play Austria.
In their two meetings during the qualifying round, Les Bleus had prevailed, although Mbappe was responsible for four of France’s six goals in those contests.
Encircled by an orange wall encompassing two thirds of Leipzig Stadium, the Dutch were ready to seize any moment of French hesitancy and did so almost immediately.
Jeremie Frimpong’s quick pace sent him clear on goal, but Mike Maignan turned his shot behind because the Bayer Leverkusen forward was unable to finish cleanly.
France’s lone alteration saw Aurelien Tchouameni take Mbappe’s place as coach Didier Deschamps looked to add another midfielder for stability.
Griezmann was the source of motivation for the 2022 World Cup finalists, who were missing their captain and lucky charm.
Bart Verbruggen felt the substitute skipper sting his palms from a distance.
The best opportunity for the Atletico Madrid attacker to take the lead before halftime was lost, though.
An intricate move played in Adrien Rabiot but when he decided to pass rather than shoot, Griezmann failed to connect on his weaker right foot. At the other end, Maignan had to produce another fine save low to his left to turn Cody Gakpo’s drive behind.
In the second half, France had the better opportunities.
Marcus Thuram missed a header that Tchouameni could not hold after he fizzed a shot from the edge of the box.
When Verbruggen turned behind Griezmann’s feeble attempt with the goal gaping, the usually dependable Griezmann committed yet another grave error.
However, the main talking point of the tournament’s opening goalless tie was that the Dutch were not the winners.
After Maignan stopped Memphis Depay with eighteen minutes remaining, Simons, a midfielder for Paris Saint-Germain, scored on the rebound.
The umpires on the pitch concluded that Denzel Dumfries was offside because he was tampering with Maignan’s ability to block the shot.
France was granted a reprieve after a protracted VAR assessment, which has been a pleasant rarity at the tournament thus far. The offside was confirmed.
Deschamps threw on Olivier Giroud and Kingsley Coman in quest of a winner, turning down the opportunity to risk Mbappe for the last moments.
However, because of the safety net that sends the top four finishers in third place to the knockout stages, both teams had to settle for a point that is probably already enough to guarantee their spot in those rounds.
