2023-11-21 22:03:05
Athens (AFP) – The French team that guaranteed its qualification to the 2024 European Cup finals in football wasted the opportunity of the full mark at the end of its qualifying campaign by tying with its host Greece 2-2 on Tuesday in the final eighth round of the second group competitions.
Published on: 11/21/2023 – 23:03
3 minutes
France took the lead with Randall Kolo-Mwani’s goal in the first half (42), before Greece turned the tables in the second with goals from its captain Anastasios Bakasetas (56) and Fotis Ioannidis (61), but Youssef Fofana equalized for the visitors and saved them from their first loss in the qualifiers (74).
France raised its score at the top to 22 points from 7 consecutive victories and a draw, and advanced 4 points ahead of its runner-up, the Netherlands, which secured its qualification in turn and won over Gibraltar with half a dozen clean goals, in a match during which Calvin Stings imposed himself as a star by scoring a hat-trick (10, 50, and 62). Mats Feifer (23), Ton Koopmeiners (38), and Cody Khabko (81) added the other three goals for the Orange team.
Greece, which will compete in the playoffs, finished in third place with 13 points, ahead of Ireland in fourth place (6 points), while the Gibraltar team left without a score after suffering its eighth loss in a row.
France coach Didier Deschamps made 8 changes compared to the squad that achieved a historic victory over Gibraltar 14-0 in Nice in the last round.
France, champion of the World Cup in Russia 2018 and runner-up to Qatar in 2022, opened the scoring after a group game started by Fofana to Olivier Giroud inside the area, and the Italian Milan striker passed it to Paris Saint-Germain striker Kolo Mwani, so he prepared the ball on his chest and shot it powerfully with his right from a difficult angle into the goal (42).
Kolo Mwani scored his second international goal in 13 matches with the “Roosters” national team. Before him, the left post was replaced by Greek goalkeeper Odyssey Vlachodimos after a shot by Antoine Griezmann (33).
Greece achieved the equalizer after a tackle inside the French penalty area that ended with a shot at Al-Tayer from outside with the left foot of captain Bakasetas (56), before taking the lead after five minutes through Ioannidis following a back pass from Dimitrios Yiannoulis.
This is the second time that Greece has scored two goals against France since 1958.
France refused to surrender and tied the score thanks to Fofana with a powerful shot from 25 meters (74), after Deschamps brought on Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappé and Marcus Thuram instead of Kolo Mwani and Giroud.
The “Roosters” team almost snatched the three points, but substitute Kingsley Coman’s ball collided with the Greek goalkeeper and hit the goalposts without scoring (89), while Mbappe made an individual display and ended it with a shot that hit the crossbar in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
© 2023 AFP
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