France 2 - 0 Austria: Tchouameni shines again

The reigning UEFA Nations League Champions France took on Austria at the Stade de France this evening in a 2-0. This League A - Group 1 affair of the Nations League was particularly intriguing for Real Madrid fans. Aurelien Tchouameni, Eduardo Camavinga, and Ferland Mendy received call-ups for the home side while Austria was led by David Alaba. Real Madrid legend Karim Benzema is away from international duty as he is going through his recovery process.

Tchouameni, Mendy, and Alaba all started for their respective teams while Camavinga was on the bench for France.

Real Madrid star Tchouameni started the game strongly as his bicycle kick was miraculously denied from the line. Both Mendy and Tchouameni were essential parts of France’s ball progression in the first half. Mendy created a few nice triangle sequences on the left with Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann late into the first half - which ended 0-0. France had to replace FC Barcelona defender Jules Kounde with Willian Saliba as the former walked off injured in the 23rd minute.

Mbappe opened the scoring for France in the 56th minute with a great goal to breathe some life into the game which was inclining towards becoming rather stale. France doubled their lead in the 65th minute via Olivier Giroud and the score remained the same for the rest of the game. Real Madrid defender David Alaba was taken off on the 70th minute by Austria manager Ralf Rangnick.

Tchouameni completed both of his attempted dribbles and won five out of the seven gorund duels he contested for. Mendy had solid game too, with 90% passing accuracy. He made one key pass as well. Alaba, in the opponent camp, had four clearances, three blocked shots, and had two out of the four long balls completed before he was taken off.

France will take on Denmark this Sunday.