The Briefing: France 1 Poland 1: Mbappe scores at last but draw sees French finish second in Group D (2024)

France could come only second in Group D at Euro 2024 after a 1-1 draw with Poland in Dortmund.

Heading into this game, none of Didier Deschamps’ squad had scored at the tournament and that trend continued in the first half, although not for the want of trying. France produced eight shots in those opening 45 minutes, four of them defined by Opta as big chances, but through a combination of wastefulness and impressive goalkeeping from Lukasz Skorupski, none ended up in the net.

The second half started in a similar manner, before a penalty in the 56th minute — scored by Kylian Mbappe, in his mask — gave France the lead. Another penalty, this time for Poland 20 minutes later, was much more controversial, both the awarding of it and the fact that Robert Lewandowski was allowed a retake. He scored it, meaning the game ended as a draw, which could have implications for the tournament as a whole.

Nick Miller, Michael Cox, Andy Jones, Elias Burke and Charlie Scott analyse the key talking points from the game.

Kylian Mbappe finally scores at the Euros

It took two tournaments, six games, 536 minutes and 23 shots, but Kylian Mbappe finally has a goal at a European Championship.

It’s a difficult thing to explain, given that he has 12 goals in 14 appearances over two World Cups, including four in two finals. Have the Euros just been badly timed for Mbappe, coinciding with difficult periods in his career? Are the Euros genuinely more difficult to win than the World Cup, or is that just something that he has said to justify his lack of success at the tournament? Has the France team around him simply been better at those World Cups in 2018 and 2022?

In this game at least, they certainly seemed more dependent on him, certainly before Olivier Giroud and Antoine Griezmann came on after an hour. In the moments before he scored his penalty, there was certainly a sense that the likes of Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembele were just looking to Mbappe to do something, rather than taking control themselves.

Maybe there isn’t a reason. Or at least not a logical one. Maybe it’s a weird quirk, a sort of statistical variance. But if France are to do anything significant at this competition, then he will need to score plenty more.

Nick Miller

An impressive goalkeeping display from Lukasz Skorupski

Wojciech Szczesny who?

It looks like the future of Poland’s goalkeeper position is in safe hands after Lukasz Skorupski stepped in and produced an excellent performance to deny Kylian Mbappe and company for as long as he could.

Replacing the outgoing Szczesny — who hangs up his gloves as his country’s record clean sheet holder with 34 in his 83 appearances — will be no easy task but this was a good start to a new era for 33-year-old Skorupski.

Following an impressive season for Bologna, who secured Champions League qualification in Italy’s Serie A, Skorupski looked right at home on the international stage. Earning his eleventh cap, he has had to bide his time waiting behind Szczesny and Lukasz Fabianski before him.

He saved from Theo Hernandez in the opening 15 minutes and then made himself big to deny both Ousmane Dembele and Mbappe from close range. The theme continued in the second half as Skorupski was initially a match for everything that France threw at him, making seven saves in total.

It took a penalty to finally beat him — Jakub Kiwior brought down Dembele and Mbappe sent Skorupski the wrong way.

Andy Jones

Breaking down a controversial Poland penalty

Robert Lewandowski was the most fortunate man in Dortmund this evening as France goalkeeper Mike Maignan spared his blushes by moving off his line during the striker’s penalty run-up.

Poland were awarded a penalty in the 76th minute after Italian referee Marco Guida determined that Dayot Upamecano had fouled Karol Swiderski after consulting the VAR monitor.

Upamecano, who plays his club football here in Germany for Bayern Munich, went through the back of Swiderski, who had taken a touch out of his feet inside the box. Up stepped Lewandowski, Poland’s record goalscorer, with the traditionally simple task of converting from 12 yards.

Lewandowski chose a stuttered run-up and stopped on his left foot before shooting with his right towards Maignan’s right-hand side, only to see him make the save.

But Lewandowski and his team-mates immediately crowded the referee to suggest the AC Milan ’keeper had left the goal line before the taker had connected with the ball.

Television replays showed Maignan had indeed left his line early. According to Law 14, ‘The defending goalkeeper must remain on the goal line, facing the kicker, between the goalposts, without touching the goalposts, crossbar or goal net, until the ball is kicked.’

The referee agreed, and Lewandowski got another try. The second time was the charm, with Maignan unable to stop this fresh effort, again aimed towards the bottom left corner.

Elias Burke

Was that farewell to Lewandowski on the big stage?

Have we just watched Robert Lewandowski’s final major tournament appearance?

Only the Poland striker will know, but it is not the way the 35-year-old (he turns 36 in August) will want to go out as he and his team-mates were playing only for pride against France after their Euro 2024 elimination was already confirmed by defeats in the first two group matches against the Netherlands and Austria.

But as all top goalscorers do, he managed to leave his mark on the tournament — becoming only the third player to score in four different European Championships. He might have needed a second attempt from the penalty spot after Mike Maignan’s infringement, but he duly improved his all-time goalscoring record, netting his 83rd goal in his 152nd appearance.

By the time the next World Cup rolls around in summer 2026, Lewandowski will be almost 38 years old. There is a good chance he is still scoring goals at a decent level, and with pressure on Poland to qualify again they will surely hope Lewandowski leads them for one more qualifying campaign.

Andy Jones

Have France got problems?

There’s an argument France have the most talented squad in this competition, but you wouldn’t know that from assessing their three matches so far. The French have only scored twice — through an own goal and a penalty — and against Poland they lacked any kind of combination play or cohesion between their attackers.

They were essentially a team of individualists. Kylian Mbappe was bright but tried to do everything himself. Ousmane Dembele sprinted dangerously down the right but his crossing was poor, as was his finishing. N’Golo Kante sprung forward from midfield twice to good effect in the first half, but his final ball was almost comically bad.

The two players who connect this side are Olivier Giroud, with his hold-up play — although it must be acknowledged that Marcus Thuram played that role well in the second half against the Netherlands in Friday’s goalless draw — and Antoine Griezmann, who provides creativity from his deeper midfield role these days. Without either of them in the starting line-up, France looked disjointed and unconvincing.

France will almost certainly improve in the knockout phase, but their group games have been completely unconvincing.

Michael Cox

Why finishing second could be concerning for France

The standings in Group D shifted on multiple occasions during today’s final pair of matches. At half-time, with the score 0-0 in Dortmund, France were in second place. In the group’s other match, Ralf Rangnick’s Austria were leading the Netherlands, 1-0, in Berlin, which put them top.

France taking the lead through Kylian Mbappe lifted them into first place — which meant they were on course to be in the half of the knockout-stage draw with Italy, England and Belgium, three teams who have hardly lit up the tournament so far. The other half, which awaited the team who finished second in Group D, has some of Euro 2024’s form teams — Portugal, Spain and Germany.

But Poland equalising through Robert Lewandowski, and Austria restoring their lead in the other game (which finished 3-2 in their favour), means that France go through as runners-up, and so have — on paper — a much harder run to the final on July 14.

France’s possible route to the final:

Round of 16: Romania/Belgium/Slovakia/Ukraine
Quarter-final: Portugal
Semi-final: Spain/Germany

Charlie Scott

What did Deschamps says?

“I’m not disappointed at all. Of course we wanted top spot but who was just here? (Poland goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski spoke before him). He was excellent, he made a lot of saves and we couldn’t make the most of our chances. We had five in the first half. But it’s not just a case of taking our chances; you have to give credit to the goalkeeper.

“We need to be playing quickly, with the ball on the deck. We were never going to win (against Poland) in the air, as they are stronger than us. You can have two chances and score two. You can have seven, as we did today, and not score. Of course we can improve but I’d be more worried if there were no chances.

“I’m not going to flog a dead horse. The squad is together, they are creating chances. The fact we haven’t scored limits our performance but, ultimately, we’re into the last 16. And look, we were in a really tough group. We’ll get some time off now, and hopefully you (journalists) get some time off, too!”

What did Poland coach Michal Probierz say?

“We fought until the end, and we had some really good spells — that’s how I want to play football. I want to thank the players for their commitment – it’s a shame we couldn’t qualify. It’s a pity we have to leave. This has been a difficult tournament. We wanted to stay longer and were prepared to stay longer. We had a good game, put on a good show despite it being so hot. You could barely breathe out there. There were parts of the match when we played pretty well, but we need better structure. We need our top players to be playing consistently, week in, week out.”

Recommended reading

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• Josip Ilicic at Euro 2024: The remarkable return of one of Slovenia’s most talented players ever

(Top photo: Getty Images)