Belgium-France (1-2): Kolo Muani, two flashes of lightning in the night

As usual, it’s not really him we were expecting. However, it was still him, on this Monday not really in the sun, who played hide and seek, saved the face of this French team as pale as a sheet and made two sparks fly in the deep darkness. Randal Kolo Muani, let’s not lie to ourselves, certainly did not deliver his best performance in blue against the Belgians, nor more inspired than most of his comrades who were absent for this fourth meeting of the League of Nations. But the PSG striker will have at least had that, a surgical efficiency, that so many others have not had in recent weeks that it will have been enough for him, once again, to play the saviors of the France team.

Failing to follow the swaying style of some of his partners, the native of Bondy not only has the merit of never giving up, of fighting, relentlessly weighing on the opposing defense but also and above all of shaking the nets like no other tricolor in 2024. His double – the first in blue – scored this Monday evening at the Roi-Baudouin stadium allows him to post serial goalscoring figures.

Seven goals in his last eight starts

With seven goals in his last eight starts, Randal Kolo Muani is, by far, the best director of the French team since the Greece-France in November 2023, his pursuers Bradley Barcola, Youssouf Fofana and Kylian Mbappé being, for their part, to be credited with only two units over this period. A total which does not include, of course, the winning goal against Belgium in the round of 16 of the last Euro, UEFA having finally burdened Vertonghen with an own goal and credited Kolo Muani with a simple pass decisive.

Four days after having been decisive against Israel by delivering a decisive pass to Camavinga during the French opener, then having placed a destabilizing body feint on the fence of the Barcola mark, Kolo Muani this time did the job almost alone.

A second goal not very “Luis Enrique compatible”

At the heart of a 100% PSG attack, where Barcola will place a magnificent sequence of “coat rack” control-outside hook-rolling strike from the right (25th) and Dembélé an explosive rush followed by a strike at the foot of the post (52nd) , Kolo Muani will hit the mark on – almost – each of his attempts. First on a penalty – his first in blue – which he scored in the 35th minute on his eighth ball of the match. Then on a perfect cross from Digne which he converted with a magnificent uncrossed header (62nd).

A type of action that is not very “Luis Enrique compatible” which perhaps explains why the former Frankfurter, discreet in each of his uses in Paris, hardly enters into his coach’s plans. But an efficiency which validates, without a doubt, the confidence placed in him by Didier Deschamps.