Didier Deschamps is no stranger to interventions in World Cup knockout ties. Indeed, this was his second in a row, albeit separated by 16 years.
In 1998, he was the captain masquerading as manager, delivering the half-time team talk, urging his colleagues not to let their final lead against Brazil slip.
They did not.
Come 2014, he was confined to the dugout. His reconfigured team found Nigeria in an obdurate mood. His gambit of switching Karim Benzema to the left wing, initially so successful, left France’s finest forward stranded in no-man’s land.
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Deschamps acted decisively. Off came Olivier Giroud, ineffective as the lone striker. On went Antoine Griezmann, to take Benzema’s spot on the flank. The success of the substitution should not be measured by the injury-time goal he claimed, even though it deflected in off Joseph Yobo, but by the 10-minute onslaught that brought the crucial opener.
In Griezmann and the magnificent Mathieu Valbuena, France now had two clever inside forwards, scheming together in their quest for a breakthrough.
Benzema was put in a position of maximum potency. He almost had a hatful in the space of a few minutes. Valbuena was twice the prompter. But for two goal-line clearances and two superb saves from Vincent Enyeama, the switch would have reaped a direct benefit.
Instead, France’s advantage came indirectly. Nigeria were put under intense pressure when Yohan Cabaye struck the bar.
They cracked, briefly but fatally. Enyeama came for, and missed, a corner and Paul Pogba headed it in.
It was cruel that he was the culprit. Enyeama had made a stunning save from Pogba in the first half. He was burnishing his claim to be both the finest African goalkeeper in this World Cup and the most outstanding shot-stopper from any nation.
Now two Latin Americans, in the shape of Mexico’s Guillermo Ochoa and Costa Rica’s Keylor Navas, seem the principal candidates for the Golden Glove.
Enyeama’s acrobatics ended in elimination, his sole mistake punished. For Nigeria, like Deschamps, this brought back memories of 1998. Africa’s most-populous nation had not reached the knockout stages since then. They have still never qualified for the quarter-finals.
They can lament two turning points. Emmanuel Emenike, a striker who has offered hints of his ability after being starved of support in the opening stalemate against Iran, seemed fractionally onside when he poked in Ahmed Musa’s low cross. However, a raised flag denied Nigeria a 1-0 lead.
Then Blaise Matuidi’s lunge at Ogenyi Onazi resulted in the Nigerian being stretchered off. If the challenge was not malicious, it nonetheless appeared dangerous and the Frenchman was fortunate the sanction was only a yellow card.
Nigeria could have been facing 10 men; instead, they were confronted with 11 and Matuidi is fundamental to Deschamps’s plan.
He has found a formation to use the athleticism of his runners and free his flair players. There is a lovely blend of the power of Matuidi and Pogba and the delicacy of Valbuena, the little inventor who is nominally a winger but actually a clever drifter.
It is Valbuena who has been the designated replacement for Franck Ribery and who has ensured that, so far, France’s injured frontman has not been missed.
Nor, indeed, has the omitted Samir Nasri. Valbuena has taken up the positions the Manchester City man tends to occupy.
He is one of only four survivors from the 2010 squad, although he was a fringe player in the group who disgraced themselves.
They were a team who, apart from going on strike, continued the boom-and-bust nature of France’s World Cups: winners in 1998, failing to progress out of the group in 2002, finalists in 2006 and again limited to three games in 2010.
Their prowess in the early knockout stages bodes well for their quarter-final chances.
So, too, does their manager’s capacity to change a game. It had never really been examined previously in a World Cup where France proceeded smoothly through a comparatively simple group.
Nigeria presented the stiffest test France have faced so far. When Benzema lingered on the left and when two physically strong sides seemed to cancel each other out, extra-time loomed. Then Deschamps illustrated why he had the strategic skills of a manager all those years ago, when he was captaining France to a World Cup win, to take them closer to another.
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