It was a date marked on the calendar for weeks after his appointment was officially announced. Zinedine Zidane took his place for the first time on the Blues bench during the Nations League match of the French team won against Turkey (1-0), Friday September 25 evening, at the Kocaeli stadium in Izmit.
In a stadium where the fervent Turkish public whistled the French anthem copiously, the Blues “ZZ” version started in 4-3-3 instead of the 4-2-3-1 often used during the “DD” era. As for the starters, Zizou did not revolutionize the starting 11. Particularly on the attacking front, where he renewed the trio Mbappé – Dembélé – Olise, placing the captain of the Blues on the left wing and “Dembouz” in false 9 – as at PSG.
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During the first quarter of an hour, the Blues – who are playing in white this evening – are looking for their new marks, sometimes giving rise to inaccuracies in passing as in this misunderstanding between Ousmane Dembélé and Kylian Mbappé (7th). We had to wait until the 17th minute to see the first French opportunity: Michael Olise found Kylian Mbappé behind, whose cross shot proved too crushed and fled the Turkish frame.
In defense, the French team sometimes shows signs of reluctance, as on this header from Kadioglu captured by Maignan (28th) or on this one-two between Arda Güler and Baris Yilmaz stopped by Maxence Lacroix (32nd). In attack, the Blues lack creativity, even when the attacking trio tries to switch to surprise the opposing defenders.
Kylian Mbappé scores and injures his knee
The French cannot find the key to the Turkish padlock at the moment despite several attempts to force it before half-time. But neither Rayan Cherki (41st), nor Michael Olise (43rd) nor Adrien Rabiot (44th) hit the mark on their attempted strike. Returning from the locker room, it was Turkey’s turn to be threatening: first on a free kick from Arda Güler deflected by the French wall (50th), then on a header from Ismail Yüksek slammed by Mike Maignan (51st).
And it is paradoxically during this weak time that the French team opens the scoring thanks to its captain: served by Michael Olise, Kylian Mbappé leaves no chance to Ugurcan Çakir on a close shot (1-0, 54th). But this good news comes with worse news: the French number 10, who seems to have injured his left knee on his goal, leaves his place to Désiré Doué (60th).
With a goal behind, the Star Crescents try to come back to the score, but neither Oguz Aydin (64th) nor Salih Ozcan get their shot on target (67th). By planning further, the Turks also expose themselves to the Blues taking off, as in this curling shot from Jules Koundé which narrowly touches the opposing goal (69th). Shortly after, Michael Olise also came close to 2-0 with the same style of shot (72nd).
The French team still only has a one-goal lead, Arda Güler knows it and tries a shot from a tight angle. But he comes up against Mike Maignan (75th). The Blues have the opportunity to drive home the point at the end of the game, but Ugurcan Çakir prevents Bradley Barcola from going deep alone against him. Problem: the Turkish goalkeeper touches the ball with his arm outside his penalty area, he is logically excluded (87th).
The 8 minutes of additional time will not change the score, but the essentials are assured. The French team wins away, a successful debut for the first match of the Zinedine Zidane era.
