This was a match many thought would set the tone for each teams respective tournaments. The two biggest teams in the group, both with the expectation/hope of registering maximum points in the other group games would be hoping to gain an advantage in this game and hopefully avoid Spain in the quarter finals. As it was, it turned out to be not much more than a damp squib.
The perception of both teams is that they have struggled since World Cup 2010 despite France putting together a now 22 game unbeaten run and England coming through Euro 2012 qualifying with relative ease. The reality is that both teams are very good at qualifying but, certainly in recent times have struggled to get into the later stages of major tournaments. This is in part down to a decline in talent and archaic tactical structures in Englands case (which we wil come to later) and bad coaching and player decisions from France. Both teams came into the Euros hoping to put this behind them and, with expectations at their lowest in recent memory, quietly go about their business.
France lined up much as expected, an unorthodox 4-3-3 with Malouda providing the guile in the centre of the park. There was a reliance on the full backs, Evra and Debuchy to get forward to support Ribery and Nasri. As it was, Debuchy had the better game of the two despite being up against Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ashley Cole. Evra struggled to contain and pass off Milner when he came inside and was exposed to Glen Johnson's rampaging runs on more than one occasions. He handled this fairly well but there was none of the attacking intent that we see so often for Manchester United.
If you're familiar with Roy Hodgson's teams, what England offered today will have came as no surprise. Two banks of four, very deep, very disciplined when not with the ball with midfield runners supporting two attackers should the chance arise. The one surprise starter, Oxlade-Chamberlain, had a quiet match possibly under the weight of expectation. In his defence, he was playing directly against the best player on the park, Mathieu Debuchy.
Just how deep and defensive England played comes as no surprise when you compare both teams creative hubs and central player as shown above. Ashley Young only attempted 14 passes in the entire match (of which 12 were successful). Compare this to his counterpart in the French midfield zone, Samir Nasri, who attemped a fantastic 93 passes (85 successful)
Englands goal was...English. Simplistic yet effective. A fantastic free kick from Gerrard to the back post, Lescott's point blank header. 1-0. Easy. It was very much against the run of play and you felt if England could keep it tight until half time then they could continue to shut up shop in the second half and grind the result out. As it was, they came undone within 9 minutes and it could have been a lot sooner. Between Englands goal and Nasri's leveller, Alou Diarra had two chances which he should have converted. It proved to be third time lucky for France as Nasri managed to squeeze a low shot inside Joe Harts near post after some neat work from Evra and Ribery. Nasri has received plaudits for the finish but Hart got a weak hand to it and will be disappointed to have lost a goal to a club teammate in such a manner.
England tired considerably in the second half, they completed only 136 passes in the second half and 307 overall compared to France's 634. Both teams generally seemed happy with their lot although France, to their credit probed away without really making much inroads.
Striking differences
Danny Wellbeck and Karim Benzema played as the lone strikers for their teams today, neither had particularly great games but for very different reasons. France played fairly well, however it seemed to fall down when it came to Benzema. Coming off the back off a tremendously impressive season at Madrid in which he scored 32 goals in 51 appearances and finally consolidated his position as the teams central striker he would have been quietly confident of troubling an unfamiliar and at times potentially cumbersome England central defence. As it was he was fairly well nullified and restricted to 6 shots, 4 of which were from outside the penalty area with only 3 on target.
Wellbeck had a successful breakthrough season at Man Utd, however in this game he was asked to play as a lone striker. He is a reactive player rather than proactive and as such this doesn't really suit him. I find he works better with a partner, someone he can buzz around and feed off of. Ashley Young wasn't able to have as much of an influence on this game as I mentioned above and as the link player, Englands game plan was always going to fall down here. You can see how ineffective and starved of service Wellbeck was by the shot comparison above; not a single effort registered, either on or off target tells it's own story.
The return of Rooney for the last group stage should ensure England are considerably more cohesive in the final third but their lack of forward play was particularly striking when you consider how unbelievably unimpressive Rami and Mexes were as a centre back pairing. Mexes looks to be way past his peak and Rami appears to be a shadow of the player at Lille a couple of seasons back. It looks like this will be Blancs main challenge over the next couple of games and we may see Koscielny given some game time in future.
A match which on paper was never going to be a classic certainly proved this way in which was probably the poorest game of the Euro's so far. Hodgson can be commended for tightening England up and ensuring they were at the very least disciplined and solid. The real test will be in the next two games when England will be the the favourites (something Hodgson hardly had much success with at Liverpool) and have to play with attacking intent. For France, this has to be considered a job well done, over the piece they may be happy with a point but feel they could have gained more. With the players at their disposal they should be confident of taking maximum points from their remaining two games and qualifying from the group.
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