France overpowered Belgium in a heavyweight Nations League clash with a rotated starting XI that saw Kylian Mbappe benched. Without the Real Madrid attacker, Ousmane Dembele took the role of superstar, despite being criticised widely during Euro 2024 after some remarkably ineffective displays. Here, though, he was at his sparkling best.
Randal Kolo Muani opened the scoring after 29 minutes, as he capitalised on some loose goalkeeping to smash home a rebound via a block from Wout Faes.
Just after the 55 minute mark, Dembele added a second to ram home Les Bleus’ advantage. Having played a one-two on the edge of the box, Dembele took the ball back, shimmied beyond two defenders, and fired an effort into the roof of the net.
Mbappe came on and peppered the Belgium goal with efforts but he was unable to hit the back of the net; the headlines, this time, belonged to his old Paris Saint-Germain team-mate.
GOAL rates France’s players from Parc Olympique Lyonnais…