Izuchukwu Okosi
Real Madrid forward, Kylian Mbappe, was the star of the show on Sunday afternoon as France beat Germany 2-0 to claim third place in the 2025 UEFA Nations League competition.
The former AS Monaco and PSG star was at the end of a great pass from club mate Aurelien Tchouameni in the 45th minute.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe goal came after the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) had overturned a Germany goal for a handball in the buildup.
Mbappe, who was awarded the Man of the Match, set up Nigerian-born Michael Olise to tap into an empty net after a swift counter attack.
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Germany would rue their missed chances in the game as another player of Nigerian heritage, Karim Adeyemi, was brought down inside the box by France goalkeeper, Mike Maignan.
Television playbacks showed that the ‘fufu boy’ may have dived to con the referee which led to him being yellow-carded and the spot kick withdrawn.
Deniz Undav had a goal disallowed after Nicolas Fullkrug was deemed to have fouled Adrien Rabiot in the buildup.
Germany enjoyed more of the ball possession according to the match statistics with Adeyemi seeing three shots saved by Chelsea target Maignan while Florian Wirtz, who is commanding the interest of Liverpool struck the post.
Marcus Thuram who eventually got subbed off and replaced by Matteo Guenduezi curled an effort that hit the post while had a few shots including an acrobatic effort saved by Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Julian Nagelsmann’s Germany have thus failed to win in three consecutive international games, including Wednesday’s semi-final defeat by Portugal.
Captain Joshua Kimmich told RTL post match in an interview: “We should have been leading 3-0 after six minutes. Then we went into the break a goal behind.
“We lost patience too early and lost our structure in the second half. We made too many mistakes and gave them what they wanted.”
Les Bleus boss Didier Deschamps added: “Mike [Maignan] was a fantastic last line of defence and he kept us in it at the start.
“I thought the scoreline at half-time against Spain [2-0] was incredibly severe. I’m not going to sit here and lie to you and say that we deserved to go into half-time today in the lead, but it allowed us to go on and become better.”
Spain, who beat France 5-4 in their last-four tie, and Portugal play in the final later on Sunday in Munich.
The kick off is 8pm Nigerian time.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
