In League A, Group 2 of the Nations League, France had a rematch against Italy at their home ground. Having lost 1-3 to Thien Thanh in the first leg, Deschamps and his team played excellently to get revenge in the second leg. In the end, the French team won 3-1 against Italy, with a double from Rabiot and an own goal from Vicario. The home team Italy only managed to score 1 goal thanks to Cambiaso.
After the match, coach Deschamps stressed that the French team had achieved their goal, according to RAI Sport: "We knew that this victory was not easy, because Italy are in good form. Coming here with a 3-1 victory allows us to regain the top spot in the group. I think we deserved it, because of the performance the players showed."
After the loss to Italy, Deschamps made changes to the French team's playing style. He switched from a 4-2-3-1 formation to a 4-3-3 formation, to better counter coach Spalletti's 3-5-1-1 formation.
More importantly, France did extremely well in this match with set pieces. All three of their goals against Italy came from free kicks. Rabiot's two goals came from a corner and a free kick from the sidelines, with Digne's beautiful free kick in between that caused the Italian goalkeeper to accidentally put it into his own net.
“We needed a lot of little things to win,” Deschamps revealed. “I think the three strikers helped us defend better and put Italy under pressure. Technically, my team did a great job. I focused on Italy’s positioning in set pieces and it paid off.”
