World champions France were held to a 1-1 draw against Ukraine in a 2022 World Cup qualifier earlier today.
France took the lead through Antoine Griezmann on the 19th minute. However, Ukraine did well to contain the world champions after that and they were defensively solid throughout the game.
Ukraine were rewarded for their persistence in the second half when Presnel Kimpembe scored an own goal in the 57th minute.
France had a couple of great opportunities to take the lead but Chelsea forward Olivier Giroud missed quality opportunities to put his side ahead and Bayern Munich winger Kingsley Coman had a legitimate penalty claim turned down.
France dominated the possession for the large spells of the game but they failed to secure the winner.
Meanwhile, the tactical choices from Didier Deschamps backfired as well. The France manager used a 4-4-2 system against Ukraine and his players struggled to get used to the formation.
France are used to playing with an asymmetrical 4-2-3-1 shape.
The manager himself revealed after the game but France used a similar shape against Moldova two years ago and they struggled back then as well.
He said: “I tried this shape against Moldova two years ago, we had a bad 1st half as well then.”
Striker Antoine griezmann also alluded but the tactics failed to get the best out of the players tonight.
He added: “We needed maybe more offensive players who are able to go one-v-one on the sidelines. We will learn to play in a system like that and try to start winning again. We wanted to win but we didn’t play a great game. We’re going to look at it all and try to improve.”
The 4-4-2 system left the wingers deeper down the pitch and there were no attacking midfielders to link the midfield with the attack. The French attack looked disjointed and they failed to link-up properly.
