France met Australia in the first match of Group C today.
In the sunny noon of Kazan, the world cup fixture between France and Australia was quite unlike what we’ve been accustomed to see over the last few days. France started their world cup campaign rather slowly, and Australia’s tight defence in the first half impressed the neutrals.
A team which landed in Russia as favourites seemingly struggled against the Socceroos in the first half. However, France came out on top of Australia, even when they failed to deliver to the expectations one normally have from the ‘favourites’ of a tournament.
The French misplaced passes in the attack and conceded silly balls, while Australia looked to punish on the counter-attacks. Both the opening goals for France and Australia were courtesy the penalties, while Paul Pogba scored the winning goal for France to give them a 2-1 win.
This was also the first instance VAR (Video Assistant Referee) was used in the game. It was used when Vidson fouled Griezmann inside the box, and it ultimately led to the penalty.
Here are a few tweets from the match –
Umtiti doing his best to prevent Griezmann from being happy after he rejected us
— barcastuff (@barcasstuff) June 16, 2018
France 2 Australia 1. Or excluding technology, France 0 Australia 1.
— Daniel Cherny (@DanielCherny) June 16, 2018
France’s individual quality making the difference today, but my man Didier Deschamps, you have one hell of a squad with superb talent. It’s just not exactly that they are so poorly coached. It’s like Brazil with Dunga.
In a parallel world, can Zidane be France’s Tite for 2022?
— Seleção Brasileira (@BrazilStat) June 16, 2018
Graeme Souness when he realises Pogba was involved in both of France’s goals. pic.twitter.com/TbFx8GG2bI
— Ryan. (@Vintage_Utd) June 16, 2018
Caption this!
“UMTITI: HAND OF FROG”
…is all I can think of, but it’s a bit offensive… #FRAAUS pic.twitter.com/qRf7LnUbs5— ⚽442oons⚽ (@442oons) June 16, 2018
Name : Samuel Umtiti
Job : LeBron James #FRAAUS #FRA #WorldCup #WorldCupRussia2018 #AUS pic.twitter.com/D8iNZ6bMDn— #WorldCup (@TheSporTalk) June 16, 2018
The fact opinion is divided on the Griezmann VAR penalty decision suggests that even if it probably was a penalty the decision should not have been changed.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) June 16, 2018
When the owner of this bet meets Umtiti #FRAAUS #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/iBnGMXw8cb
— ᝣ (@ERNESTHDGAMER) June 16, 2018
Live scenes from Russia as the Australian fans wait outside the stadium for the VAR referees. #WorldCup #AUS pic.twitter.com/8q5MpFWl2Y
— Historical Sport (@HistorySport_) June 16, 2018
Somebody please tell me the difference between Pogba’s goal and the ghost goal Fat Frank scored ?#WorldCup #FrancevsAustralia pic.twitter.com/Cea1nvMOEO
— James (@crlfc74) June 16, 2018
Paul Pogba becomes the first French player since Michel Platini to score in consecutive World Cups pic.twitter.com/dlyrFS2e4x
— utdreport (@utdreport) June 16, 2018
