France 2-1 Moldova
Well, that wasn’t exactly what we expected!
Euro 2020: France vs Moldova was expected to be a comfortable ride for the hosts, as the vast majority in the Stade de France crowd expected Moldova to roll over for their illustrious hosts tonight.
But they didn’t. In fact, the small nation which has never qualified for a tournament finals came within ten minutes or so of taking a point away from the World Champions.
A recent 1-1 draw with Turkey meant Les Bleus still needed a result tonight to take command of Group H.
But while they dominated the ball and huffed and puffed, they were only saved by a late penalty converted by Olivier Giroud. And that was enough to take Didier Deschamps’ team top of Group H.
Before a ball was kicked France had already qualified for Euro 2020 thanks to a 0-0 draw played out between Turkey and Iceland. Having confirmed their own qualification, the Turkey fans will have been listening out for the France vs Moldova updates with interest for 79 minutes at least!
Highlights of the game
The World Champions were already through to the finals thanks to Turkey’s home draw with Iceland earlier in the evening. And in the sports betting world, the France vs Moldova betting tips unanimously went for a home win.
But in football anything can happen and on nine minutes it did!
There was some shocking defending from Clement Lenglet when Moldova sent a long ball over the top. The Barcelona defender nodded it onwards and tried to steer it to his keeper, but Vadim Rata got ahead of the defender and fired the ball past the advancing Steve Mandanda and into the net.
Finally, on 35 minutes and after much fruitless effort, France got an equaliser courtesy of captain Raphael Varane. But there was more than a hint of controversy about the goal.
Antoine Griezmann sent in a free-kick and as Olivier Giroud jumped, he clattered into Moldova keeper Alexei Koselev. When he spilt the ball, Varane was on hand to nod home. The visitors were furious surrounding the referee but the goal stood.
Plucky Moldova kept Les Bleus at bay for much of the second half and it looked like being a rather embarrassing night for the World Champs, had they just managed a draw thanks to a decidedly dodgy goal.
But their blushes were spared on 79 minutes when Lucas Digne was fouled in the penalty area, and Giroud — who had a big hand in the equaliser — slotted home the penalty for his sixth goal of the competition.
It all seemed a little unfair on the underdogs, but that’s football.
Key statistics
We went for a four goal win with our pre-match SBOBET predictions (under 4.5 goals) but France were a little lucky to escape with a win against a woefully out of form Moldova.
Even with a long injury list including Manchester United’s Paul Pogba, you would have expected Les Bleus to coast through this game. However, a questionable equaliser and a late penalty was all they had to show for their efforts.
Sure the World Champions dominated the play, with 77-per cent possession and had 17 shots to the visitors’ two. But they carved out very few good openings with only three clear cut chances to show for the 90 minutes.
The Moldova defence battled manfully making 16 interceptions, three blocks and 30 clearances, and their hard work almost paid off. They had lost all their other six defeats to nil, but that is scant consolation when they were denied late on.
Les Bleus are now unbeaten in six with a home record of four wins and a draw in this competition. Moldova, meanwhile, have lost all five of their away games and are now bottom of Group H after Andorra picked up a 2-2 draw away to Albania.
What’s next?
France heads to the finals of Euro 2020 as one of the hot favourites, particularly after winning the 2018 World Cup in such scintillating style.
Okay they were missing a handful of injured players for this game, but Deschamps has plenty of talent at his disposal. In Varane and Giroud, he had two goal-scorers with immense international experience.
They will have to play much better next summer. But in the meantime, Les Bleus have another fixture away to Albania next week. Of course, their hosts failed to beat tiny Andorra tonight.
Moldova sign off with a home draw against Iceland and that will be another tough test against a side with play-off hopes.
Play like they did tonight and they have a chance.
●●●
CHECK OUT OUR BLOG FOR MORE FOOTBALL STORIES & ODDS
Stay updated with everything sports and betting.
Follow us on social Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
