Argentina's defeat was a sobering one. Unlike the 442 formation used in the Algeria game, Argentina switched back to 433 in this game, putting Messi at the top of the line to try the so-called strikerless tactic. Higuain did not start and Pavon took his place on the right. France, on the other hand, played a 4231 formation, with Matuidi on the left, but actually went back to a 433 for the game, with Matuidi dropping back to intercept at the back.
Frankly speaking, I was deeply disappointed by this game. Argentina failed to stalemate France in a fierce confrontation as expected, and then gradually used Messi to undermine the French defense. Even though they wanted to show blood, they were not prepared for Mbappe's speed. Had it not been for France's own problems, Argentina would have lost 3-0.
The French side was also quite a sight to behold, dominating the first half with Mbappe, and as I predicted earlier, all three of France's goals came from Mbappe, including two of his own and a penalty in the opening 13 minutes thanks to Mbappe's high-speed sprinting. He produced three goals almost single-handedly and the early penalty had a huge impact on Argentina, panicking them and not allowing them to settle down until long after. If you take away Mbappe's play, France's overall performance was actually inconsistent.
Argentina still started Mascherano at the back, but they didn't solve Mascherano's problem effectively. When France's three backs go up over the center line, Argentina should leave two center backs and a trailing back in the central area to face all of their opponents, rather than turning back and chasing. This would have created a deep defense and effectively limited France's counterattacks.
The Argentine defense was too casual, playing only on their own terms, but unguarded against France's fastest man, Mbappe. Mbappe's style of play has been the same from Monaco to Paris Saint-Germain, and he is especially good at long sprints. Rojo was waiting for him at the back, but Mbappe suddenly kicked the ball out as he approached Rojo, sprinting at full speed, and Rojo had no time to prepare. Rojo missed the break and had plenty of time to prepare, yet was still slow to turn, leading to a foul just outside the box, the two dragging into the box, and Rojo pushing Mbappe with his hand. If he hadn't pushed then, Mbappe might still have had the ball and the referee of course awarded a penalty.
Mbappe then had a couple more sprints and nearly scored a second goal again.
However, France also paid the price. Di Maria's equalizer was not defended by any French player in front of him. At that time, a large number of Argentine personnel pressed into the penalty area, and in terms of the distribution of numbers, there is nothing wrong with France standing one or two more people at the back. When Di Maria got the pass in the center, Mbappe was not far away walking leisurely, Giroud was also in the vicinity, and Kante's position was to the right, so it was too late for him to chase out. Pogba has retreated into the backline in order to defend against the Argentine trio, leaving the entire center unoccupied. This is the problem with France's joint-defense system, and one of the reasons for this is to allow Mbappe to play on the counterattack, who has been charging for 40 minutes straight and naturally doesn't have the strength to join the defense. In fact, in any case, France has to defend against Messi holding the ball, when Messi stood next to Di Maria, France directly fixed the defense line in the penalty area on the 18-yard line, dense stand, in fact, is a kind of swinging bus practice, because they are very afraid of Messi breakthrough, so to line up a good wall of people will not be easy to go to the break Messi's ball in order to avoid being over, but this approach must be maintained in front of the front of the counterattacking force enough, and the back of the back before and after the The movement of the back must be very good in order to convert the counterattack, otherwise it will only be surrounded.
Getting Di Maria on the ball, even from 30 yards, he still managed to hit a pump shot at that speed, Lloris was a step slow to jump with Pogba blocking his view, and only a little bit too slow to make the save, that's how world class Di Maria is.
