In Group 2 of League A of the Nations League, France traveled to play as a guest at the home ground of Belgium. In a rather tight match, coach Deschamps and his players won a narrow 2-1 victory. This result helped France maintain 2nd place in the group with 9 points, 1 point behind the leader Italy.
While France can be satisfied with the three points, the match against Belgium was a nightmare for centre-back Williams Saliba. Playing alongside Konate in the centre of defence, the Arsenal defender kept making mistakes.
First, Saliba fouled Lois Openda in the box, giving Belgium a penalty. Then, fortunately for France, Youri Tielemans shot the ball into the sky. In the 29th minute, Arsenal's centre-back continued to lose the ball carelessly on his own turf, but Belgium's Jeremy Doku was unable to take advantage of the opportunity.
However, luck could not help Saliba in his third mistake. Before the end of the first half, the 23-year-old center-back lost the ball in the middle of the field once more, then helplessly watched Openda head the ball into the French team's net.
After the match, Saliba was immediately criticised by the French media. AFP journalist Emmanuel Barranguet declared that the Arsenal defender had "played his worst game in a Blue shirt". Meanwhile, L'Equipe described Saliba's performance as "particularly embarrassing". Eurosport France stressed that it was "a painful evening for the Arsenal defender".
Coach Deschamps also explained why Saliba kept making mistakes. He said: “We were overwhelmed for 20-25 minutes when Belgium played with a lot of pressure. This led to many technical mistakes and lost the ball.
When we were able to find a solution to get the ball up, things went better. It was good for us that they missed the penalty. After that, we were more cautious and lost the ball less. Overall, we did well in the first half.”
