A what is easily going to be looked upon as a very revived Germany side under interim coach Rudi Voller, inflicted a first ever defeat on a France side that has had Antoine Griezmann on the score sheet.
How France was going to approach the friendly in Dortmund against a severely out-of-form German team, was always up in the air. Didier Deschamps started most of his unsual starters, with Kylian Mbappe not treading a blade of grass on the pitch, as the PSG Superstar was not considered a component of Deschamps’ apparatus for his experiment on Tuesday.
Germany had lost all 4 matches since scraping a 4-2 win over Costa Rica in Qatar. And a friendly against France, was just about what will give them the required motivation as Germany looked the better side throughout the game – Though a Rudiger foul on Kolo Muani could have resulted in a penalty that would have changed the end of the game, had the referree strained his eyes just a little more when he was called over to the VAR monitor.
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In the end, it was Antoine Griezmann who was the biggest ‘loser.’ What has been an anecdotal run and a stunning, yet unsung record in International football since he scored his debut goal for France in his 2nd international cap against Paraguay in a 1-1 draw, on 1st June 2014, was snapped.
Griezmann halved the deficit a few minutes to injury time from a spot kick. But Les Bleus could not get an equaliser that would have extended his record to 43 games despite streaming forward most ominously in the final minutes. And Germany held on to what will be a genuine confidence booster, under stand in coach, Rudi Voller.
Griezmann’s record was what French fans took a lot of assuredness in, particularly in knockout games. Such as against the Republic of Ireland and Iceland in the rounds of 16 and 8 of Euro 2016, and against Germany in the semis. Against Argentina and Uruguay in the Rounds of 16 and 8 of the 2018 World Cup. And against Croatia in the final of the that same World Cup.
So magical were his goals, that even when his early goal from a spot kick was splendently cancelled out by Di Maria in the 2018 World Cup, and France fell behind to a wicked deflection very early in the 2nd half. Les Bleus quite strangely hauled themselves back into the lead to edge Argentina.
Antoine Griezmann has scored 4 goals at the World Cup. He has never scored twice in one World Cup game. France did not draw or lose one of the 4 games he scored. He has played in 19 World Cup matches. With all his goals coming in the 2018 World Cup.
In World Cup qualifications he has 10 goals and in only one game he scored twice. France drew only two of the games he scored and did not lose any. He has played a total of 18 games
Griezmann has played 18 UEFA Nations league matches and has 4 goals in 4 different matches. France did not lose or draw any.
UEFA Euro qualifying 15 games, 4 goals in four separate matches. France did not draw a game.
At the Euros he has featured in 11 games and has 7 goals, with 6 of that coming in 3 games, all in the Euro 2016 tournament played in France. France did not lose a game but drew the 2020 ( played in 2021), when he levelled against Hungary in Budapest.
International Friendlies: Griezmann has 15 goals in 42 matches. He had scored and France had avoided defeat in 14 separate games. Only Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat to Germany in Dortmund (15 goals), ended in a defeat.
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