The French team completely crushed Gibraltar this Saturday, November 18 with a record: 14-0, the biggest victory in its history. The first goal of Warren Zaire-Emery, who became the youngest scorer in the history of the Blues, also marked this meeting.
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The victory was in no doubt before kick-off, even less after five minutes of play. From there to imagine that the Blues were going to win 14-0? It is true that given the offensive contingent of the French team, the France-Azerbaijan record (10-0) of 1995 was in the minds, a few hours before facing a Gibraltarian selection which did not register the slightest goal in these Euro qualifiers.
The demonstration began from the first moments of the game, with an own goal from Ethan Santos and a trickster move from Marcus Thuram to make it 2-0 after five minutes of play. The achievements followed, pell-mell, by Jonathan Clauss for his first goal for the Blues, Kingsley Coman twice, Youssouf Fofana, Adrien Rabiot, Ousmane Dembélé, Kylian Mbappé three times including a gem from 40 meters and especially Warren Zaire-Emery.
The Parisian titi, who on November 18 became the youngest selected since 1914 thanks to his tenure, left a taste of not enough. A quarter of an hour into the game, before his goal, also making him the youngest scorer in the history of the Blues, he was the player who had touched the most ball.
Unfortunately for him and the history books, which this first selection could have marked more deeply, he was injured by a dangerous tackle from Ethan Santos far too high on the ankle. The latter also received a red card for his action, leaving his team to take the spoils in numerical inferiority.
Zaire-Emery, not the only good impression
Difficult to distribute good points as the opposition was weak. Still, there is real satisfaction to be drawn from this evening: both wings of the French team are well oiled. If the Hernandez-Mbappé pairing on the left has been sparking for a while now, the return of Clauss to the right-back position, combined with an efficient Kingsley Coman, is attractive.
Small downside on the other hand, the discretion of Marcus Thuram despite the festival. Under the eyes of his father Lilian, seated in the stands of the Allianz Riviera, he scored “only” one goal. And did not weigh too much offensively. The entry of Olivier Giroud in his place in the 66th underlined the observation. The Blues’ top scorer scored twice and saw a goal disallowed for an offside position.
Another satisfaction, which would tend to go unnoticed in this type of match, the France team is now guaranteed to be among the top seeds for the Euro 2024 group draws. The perfect evening.