France 4-1 Belgium: Zidane's substitutes turn Nations League game on its head
France left it late to beat Belgium 4-1 in the Nations League as Zinedine Zidane got his first home win as the national coach.
Substitutes Désiré Doué, Rayan Cherki and Michael Olise (two) netted four goals in 14 minutes to completely turn the match around for France, which trailed until the 77th minute.
“Tonight, this is soccer, this is what we love,” Zidane said. “We faced some difficulties in the first half but that's part of the game; it's the kind of match you get from time to time. It's good to set things right — which is what we did — and we managed to play an extraordinary second half.”
The win reinforced France's control of Group A1, three points above Italy, which beat Turkey 3-1.
Third-placed Belgium slipped four points below France. Turkey has no points.
Zidane started his time in charge of Les Bleus with wins over Turkey and Belgium before being held to a draw by Italy on his home debut on Friday.
“It's a collective effort, too,” Olise said. "He (Zidane) brings in ideas, we follow them — we've done that well over the last four matches, we're going to continue like this."
France was still to book a spot in the quarterfinals. It would have been assured of one of the top two places in the group if it beat Belgium and Italy failed to beat Turkey.
France's star-studded bench to the rescue
At the Stade de France, Belgium took the lead in the 35th minute. Dodi Lukébakio sprung the offside trap to run onto a magnificent, long pass from Roméo Lavia, raced through one-on-one with debutant Guillaume Restes and powered it over the France goalkeeper and into the back of the net.
But Zidane's star-studded bench turned things around. Doué leveled in the 77th with a low shot into the bottom right corner, and Les Bleus took the lead in somewhat strange fashion four minutes later.
Maarten Vandevoordt appeared set to save Cherki's strike but the ball hit the Belgium goalie's foot and rebounded in off his left arm. Olise set that up and added two goals in three minutes himself to seal the match.
“We knew the substitutes could change the game because they are high-quality players,” Zidane said. “But, once again, it was a complete team performance; while the substitutes might have made the difference when they came on, everyone has been good over these past two weeks — everyone played their part, and that's what stands out to me.
“We talk about Olise because he scored, and Désiré came on and scored — every player who came on scored — which means it was the right call.”
First home win of Mancini's return
In Italy, Roberto Mancini was also looking for a first home win. He started his return to the Italy bench with a loss in Rome to Belgium before morale-boosting away performances against Turkey — where the Azzurri won 4-1 — and France.
Turkey was under pressure after scoring just one goal and conceding eight in its three matches. It was also missing key players but nevertheless started the brighter in Bologna.
However, Italy took the lead against the run of play in the 26th. Gianluca Scamacca attempted to knock down a cross and it bounced off a Turkey defender's shoulder before falling kindly back to Scamacca, who volleyed it in off the underside of the crossbar.
Aral Simsir swept in a deserved equalizer for Turkey in the 61st but Italy was back in front just three minutes later when Riccardo Calafiori headed in Nicolò Barella's free kick.
Pio Esposito sealed the win late on when he tapped in Alessandro Romano's shot. Esposito became only the second Italy player to score seven international goals before his 21st birthday.
Gyökeres scores again
Victor Gyökeres extended his record Nations League scoring streak to seven games to fire Sweden to a 1-0 win in Romania.
It was a fourth of the campaign for Gyökeres, who broke the record on Friday.
Sweden tops Group B4 and is two points above Bosnia-Herzegovina, which beat Poland 1-0.
Northern Ireland remained on top of Group B2, despite being held to 0-0 by Georgia. Hungary won against Ukraine 2-1 and was second.
