Vive la France

France produced an astonishing comeback from two goals down to beat Belgium 3-2 in a last-minute thriller in the UEFA Nations League semi-final in Turin. This was already billed as a big match: the World No. 1 team against the World Champions. Two of the heavyweights in world football. And two teams who may feel they should have done better in the recent European Championships won by Italy.

It was Belgium who drew first blood with two first-half goals from Yannick Carrasco & Romelu Lukaku. The latter must really be considered one of the best forwards in the game right now; with a brilliant Pele-like dummy on Lucas Hernandez and fine lifted finish past Hugo Lloris.

But the mistake Belgium made was they thought they had wrapped it up. For the second half; Didier Deschamps changed the game plan; pressing Belgium high up in their half; and pushing their two wing-backs Benjamin Pavard & Theo Hernandez further forward. As a consequence; Belgium started losing possession in their own half; and started to lose control of the game.

Kylian Mbappe was having a good game; and it was him who found Karim Benzema in the area for a typically opportunistic strike after wrong-footing 5 Belgian defenders around him. More drama was to come when Youri Tielemans was adjudged to have fouled the lively Antoine Griezmann in the box; leading to a VAR check and penalty from Mbappe. It was a tight and somewhat unfortunate call; but ultimately the right one.

More drama was to come when Lukaku seemed to have scored the winner; another brilliant right-foot finish from Carrasco's cross; but after some celebration & hoo-hah; it was rightly chalked off for offside. The scenes had hardly died down when France launched another attack of their own; and after Toby Alderweireld's hesitant clearance; up stepped relative newcomer Theo Hernandez to rifle in an unstoppable shot for the winner.