itsbeautifuloutside

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I’ll be honest, the thought never entered my head prior to the game that I’d be watching anything but a France win. That came to pass in the end, although it was close for a long time.

The game started cagily and both teams took a while to hit their stride, France sometimes moving nicely through midfield but lacking sharpness in the final third, while Nigeria were equally wasteful when they earned some set pieces. The best piece of play in the first 20 minutes was denied by a correct offside flag when a curling cross was turned in by Eminike, but it was a very close decision and perhaps a bit slack by France to allow the kind-of chance. France do respond through Pogba, showing flashes of his form of the opening game, surging through midfield and exchanging passes with Valbuena before forcing an excellent save from Enyeama. I have watched Pogba with fascination through this tournament and while there are some rough edges to his game, often being wasteful both in front of goal as well as in his passing, he is clearly immensely talented and is always looking to make things happen. It does make Ferguson’s decision to release him look strange, he’s the closest thing Man Utd would have had to Roy Keane since Keane’s departure.

France start to dominate territory and possession but find it hard to make clear chances, although occasional fluid passing moves bring rewards, Debuchy blazing wide from the edge of the box with their clearest opening after 39 minutes. Nigeria meanwhile find it difficult to launch effective counter attacks of their own until Eminike hits a thunderbolt from 25 yards that Lloris does well to block.

Normally in somewhat uneventful games like this one I’d start making fun of the commentators, but that’s a bit tricky here with safe-hands Simon Brotherton and Kevin Kilbane. Kilbane is by all accounts a super nice guy and does lots of research, he can tell you all about the teams the players come from and how they got on last season, but he doesn’t really teach you a lot about the game or have many anecdotes about stuff- Rio Ferdinand for all his faults does have insights about what it is like to mark Balotelli and Messi etc. The half time discussion makes some interesting points about how Benzema, so good in the group stages, is isolated out on the left and struggling to make an impact, apparently to accommodate Giroud through the middle. It does seem strange, neither player had a big effect in the first half, while Benzema in previous games had been at the heart of France’s incisive attacks. Actually, in defence of the BBC, the team here of Keown, Murphy and Ferdinand do a good job of discussing the players that have impressed them this tournament, picking out some interesting names. 4 years ago, an identical discussion would have had Hansen and Lawrenson saying ‘Muller, Xavi, Sneijder’ and that would have been about it. At least this team doesn’t have contempt for its audience.

The second half starts in similar fashion to how the first ended, with little incident apart from a horrible tackle by Debuchy, although we do see one of those World Cup specials where a player released by Kilmarnock (or similar) comes on, Gabriel in this case for Nigeria.

After an hour, we get the game changing substitution, the poor Giroud withdrawn at last and replaced by Griezmann. At this stage, Nigeria are starting to grow in confidence after matching France, Odemwingie hitting a good shot from long range, but the French go up a gear and Nigeria can’t keep up.

With 70 minutes gone, Benzema finally shows some incision as he seems to have an attacking colleague on his wavelength in the shape of Griezmann: a one-two puts Benzema in, but his shot is smothered by Enyeama, the rebound hits his shins and needs Moses to clear it before it reaches the goal. It wasn’t an easy chance, and in a tight game that might be a crucial miss (see my misgivings about Benzema in my group preview), but not today.

Griezmann keeps adding nice touches and it’s his influence that allows France to take a complete stranglehold on the game. Where before they struggled to make chances, now they are creating at will, with Nigeria pinned back and their box resembling a pinball table. A Benzema cross whistles along the goalmouth and is cleared as far as Cabaye who hits a beauty which unluckily hits the underside of the bar and bounces clear. Then Benzema has a header tipped over from close range. From the resulting corner, Enyeama flaps at it and Pogba has a free header which he carefully places into the unguarded section of the net, it’s a neat finish and a deserved lead for France after 10 minutes of near constant pressure.

Nigeria start to push men forwards, but they can’t make chances as France hold them at arms’ length and look dangerous on the break themselves, Matuidi hitting an excellent long pass to Griezmann who strikes it well requiring a good tip over. As it looks like France are going to take a short corner to waste time, they surprise Nigeria by heading towards their goal, Matuidi putting in a low cross which Griezmann misses, the ball hitting Yobo and going in to seal the win in stoppage time.

France were not as fluid as in earlier games, at least until Griezmann came on- where before Giroud had failed to link up with teammates, Griezmann gave them extra verve and brought Benzema into the game. From that moment on, France were in complete control and 2-0 is a fair scoreline. They found a way to win what had been an even match up to that point, which is what you need to do to win the World Cup. Credit to Deschamps for eventually making the switch. Germany are about to kick off against Algeria and assuming they win that, a France V Germany match up will finally give the French the challenge they need. That would be a titanic match and I can’t wait to watch it - I couldn’t call a winner based on what I’ve seen so far this tournament.

jickster