Anthony McIntyre ⚽ For those indefatigable soccer enthusiasts who observed England stopping well short of the plate in their opener at Euro 2024, their love of the beautiful game took a further dent with last night's performance from the French.
About Dublin yesterday doing different things, by the time I reached the Teacher's Club in the evening I was pretty much exhausted. But that alone does not explain my falling asleep towards the end of the France V Austria clash.
There is no doubt that France is one of the footballing greats. Many feel they are calculating beyond the Euros, using it as preparation for bigger things to come. Yet the European Championship very much remains a competition of serious merit, worthy of being won for itself alone without reference to anything bigger and beyond. It is not the FA Community Shield. You would however not be considered off your trolley for thinking that the French performance last night was so poor that even Liverpool's Reds could have put Les Bleus to the sword.
When Andrew prodded me awake at the end of the game, he told me not to worry as I hadn't missed anything, it was such a boring end. I sort of knew that otherwise I would not have drifted off to a beer aided sleep in the first place.
The Belgian match, of which I got to see the second half, against Slovakia was a much more entertaining affair. Belgium despite losing the game showed much more promise, flair and aggression than the French, even with Romelu Lukaku trying to outdo Darwin Nunez for missed chances of the season. While the golden generation era of Belgian soccer has passed into sporting history, and I don't expect them to win the tournament, they can't be dismissed out of hand. The handball decision that deprived them of a goal and a point seemed woeful, the type of nitpicking nonsense that has devalued VAR in the eyes of soccer fans. They played much better than France only to lose whereas the French emerged as winners in their separate encounter That's the harsh vagaries of sport.
France were fortunate to take all three points against the Austrians. A silly own goal from a fairly innocuous Mbappe cross cost Austria dearly. Without that mishap, the French might be facing even more serious questions than are currently being asked of them. With the stellar sides apart from Spain spluttering, there is always the possibility that a non runner at the race's start could end up leaving the field behind at the finish line. Denmark 1992, or Greece, 2012, even Portugal 2016. The princes of Europe could yet be swept aside by its paupers.
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Not the first time the French were flaccid when faced with an Austrian in Germany!
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