
Audio By Carbonatix
France produced a terrific performance to teach England a painful lesson in passing, movement and imagination - even after going down to 10 men. The final score did not reflect the extent of their superiority, nor the abject cluelessness of their opponents.
England actually started pretty well, crafting a beautiful goal for Harry Kane on nine minutes. But inspired by the peerless Paul Pogba, France gradually hauled themselves into the game, and on 22 minutes, Samuel Umititi was quickest to react after Tom Heaton could only push Olivier Giroud's header back into play.
Then, just before half-time, Ousmane Dembele, another who had a fine match, sent John Stones out for a bag of chips, and when he shot Heaton again parried into danger. This time, Djibril Sidibe tucked home.
Less than a minute after half-time, a lifeline for England: Dele Alli brilliantly chased his own flick-on and Raphael Varane ran across the back of him, clipping his heels; the referee pointed to the spot.
What was more surprising was that, after consultation with the video referee, he then showed Varane a ridiculously harsh and frankly incorrect red card, beforeKane scored from the spot.
In prime position for force a win, England were instead outplayed for the remainder of the game, unable to get close to Pogba and unable to cope with the pace and intelligence of Dembele, Thomas Lemar and Kylian Mbappe.
France could've had several more goals but contented themselves with one, scored by Dembele after lovely work from Lemar and Pogba. Roughly, they are brilliant, England are not.
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