William Saliba impressed for France 🇨🇵 90 minutes played, clean sheet 👊 but all eyes on English officials as Netherlands denied – Euro 2024 hits and misses

Two games in for France and, thanks to that highly-debatable offside call against the Netherlands, two clean sheets for the tournament favourites. Arsenal’s William Saliba has been a big factor in that, oozing class in the centre of the France defence.

An ideal foil for the physical Dayot Upamecano, those much-publicised comments by Didier Deschamps alluding to weaknesses in Saliba’s game only become more baffling after each performance. There cannot be many better defenders in European football

What is striking is how easy he makes it all look, a defender whose contribution does not necessarily always show up in the statistics. For instance, he did not make a single tackle. But he did not need to. He kept the ball with 86 of his 87 passes in the match.

Those Xavi Simons moments are not as indicative of France’s dominance as the underlying statistics. They had an expected-goals total of 2.13 against Austria, compared to 0.76 for their opponents. Here, their total was 1.42 as opposed to the pitiful 0.33 of their opponents.

On the other hand, the objectives will undoubtedly begin to pour shortly. They made opportunities even in the absence of Kylian Mbappe. Antoine Griezmann missed two close-range goals, therefore he should have scored at least one. Two games and one goal does not tell the whole tale.

The full-backs are incredibly strong on each side of Saliba and Upamecano, while N’Golo Kante is still a fantastic midfield player. Although the forward players haven’t shot yet, there are several of аttаck alternatives. Anticipate Mbappe’s moment when the game gets a little more serious.

Given that they have four points from two games—the same as England—it may seem like a reasonable assessment. However, this side seems content in its own skin. Deschamps has been beaten by Saliba. By mid-July in Berlin, it wouldn’t be shоcking if the rest of France had done the same.