Toothless France labour to draw with Hungary

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France struggled to a draw with Hungary on Saturday with Antonie Griezmann grabbing an equaliser to spare their blushes.

France knew this was going to be a much different game than the one they played against Germany in Munich, they knew they were going to see a whole lot more of the ball with Hungary sitting in a low block trying to keep the French at bay.

What France wasn’t expecting was the Hungarians to go up the other end and score one themselves which they did right on the stroke of half time. This made life for Deschamps and his side a whole lot harder with Hungary now having a precious 1-0 lead to hang on to.

They had their chances before they went behind however, chances wasted by the likes of Karim Benzema, Kylian Mbappe, and Antoine Griezmann to name just a few but they just could not seem to find the back of the net.

Paul Pogba really struggled to make anything happen unlike his performance against Germany and it felt like anybody could have played the role he did for France during the game against Hungary.

The French continued to probe and dictate the game but couldn’t find any spark from anywhere, that was until Ousmane Dembele was introduced on the 57th minute.

He was sharp and electric, a whole different sort of threat that Hungary hadn’t faced yet. With his ability and willingness to use both feet, leaving players for dust, Dembele ran the opposition ragged and France finally managed to grab an equaliser on the 66th minute.

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Mbappe was sent down the right, a side which Dembele had been tormenting for ten minutes prior, and his cross found its way to an on-rushing Griezmann who slotted the ball home smartly after the cross came out off a Hungarian defender.

Mbappe had a chance to win it with just under ten minutes to play, some wonderful footwork put him in a great position to shoot at goal but his effort was straight at Peter Gulacsi who saved reasonably comfortably from the PSG man who is still yet to score in this tournament.

The Hungarians held out for a valuable draw but France will look back on this game as points dropped and may potentially affect their knockout run with no positions yet decided in Group F.

This sort of game won’t have given France much confidence about coming up against sides who will let them have the ball and dictate the play, they missed a lot of chances early on but as the game wore on, chances were very few and far between.

Should Deschamps’ side come up against a similar side that will allow them to have the ball further down the competition, it could be curtains for the World Cup winners.

France will take on Portugal in their final game in Group F on Wednesday night in Budapest.

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