France opened their 2024 European Championship campaign with a 1-0 win over a spirited Austrian side on Monday night.
EURO 2024
Result: Austria 0-1 France
Date: 17 June 2024
Venue: Düsseldorf Arena
N'Golo Kante kept his place in the line-up and starts in his first major tournament since the last European Championship, while Eduardo Camavinga and Aurelien Tchouameni both started on the bench.
The game's first big opening fell to the French on ten minutes when Kylian Mbappe was released down the left flank but instead of looking for a teammate, he went for the near post and was denied by goalkeeper Patrick Pentz.
Austria, meanwhile, nearly got the breakthrough against the run of play after 35 minutes when Marcel Sabitzer did well to play in Christoph Baumgartner who was denied by the advancing Mike Maignan in the box.
The Austrians were made to rue that miss a couple minutes later when Mbappe carved some space and drilled a cross into the box, which was deflected into the back of the net by Austria's Max Webber.
Mbappe should have had his first European goal ten minutes after the halftime break after he was slipped through on goal, but the skipper somehow sent his effort wide of the target with only Pentz to beat.
Austria coach Ralf Rangnick responded with a three changes thereafter as Gernot Trauner Trauner, Marko Arnautovic and Patrick Wimmer entered the fray with 30 minutes left on the clock.
Didier Deschamps freshened up his team with a couple changes of his own, with Ousmane Dembele and Adrien Rabiot making way for Eduardo Camavinga and Randal Kolo Muani for the final 15 minutes of the contest.
However, neither side were able to find a goal in the latter stages of the second period, with Kante showing his class in the midfield to help France see out the win.
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