September 1, 2021 – A little over two months after a disappointing exit from the European Championships, France had a chance to recover. It should have happened in the World Cup qualifiers against Bosnia and Herzegovina. On paper, the opponent was not too difficult for the world champion, but the team was stuck in a 1-1 draw.
With world superstars like Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann, Karim Benzema and Paul Pogba taking off, Bosnia and Herzegovina should not be a problem for France. However, that also applies when the same names were taken against Switzerland in the eighth final of the European Championship at the end of June. After a disappointing 3-3 draw, then lost on penalties. So France was warned in the first match after that disaster.
However, the team was surprised again and it was Bosnia who came in 0-1 thanks to new Inter striker Edin Dzeko. France seems to have woken up from this, because after a few minutes, Griezmann – who also made a transfer, to Atlético Madrid – equalized the score again. With a score of 1-1, the teams went into the dressing room and after the break France had to finish it.
However, this task became more difficult early in the second half when Jules Koundé received a more than justified red card. The Frenchman, who missed a move to Chelsea this week, made a very difficult and late tackle for Syed Kolasinac, who had to leave the field injured. France failed to score with ten players. The match ended in a 1-1 draw.
Eredivisie strikers are pushing hard
In the other stadiums, many of the Dutch league’s attackers were accurate tonight. By far the most notable was Eran Zahavi, who scored a hat-trick on behalf of Israel against the Faroe Islands. With that, the Eindhoven striker launched himself into the history books: with 337 goals in his career, he is now the highest-scoring Israeli player of all time. By the way, Israel, where Feyenoord goalkeeper Ophir Marciano was under the crossbar, won the match 0-4.
Greek Vangelis Pavlidis, who was captured by AZ from Willem II, scored his goal tonight as well. He did so in a training match against Switzerland, where Yvonne Mfugo was on the bench. Greece’s John van Te Schep lost the match, despite Pavlidis winning 2-1. Meanwhile, Robert Poznik was accurate on behalf of Slovakia in their 1-1 draw with Slovenia. The Feyenoord striker was rented to Fortuna Dusseldorf this week.
