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Winner- Blaise Matuidi
Many observers (including yours truly) have criticised French manager Didier Deschamps for playing a natural defensive midfielder like Blaise Matuidi as a left-winger. Last night, Matuidi proved all of us wrong and Deschamps right with an imperious performance.
The Juventus midfielder was brilliant on the counter-attack as he took advantage of Belgium’s rather weak defence, making two key passes that led to chances for his teammates. Matuidi’s activity on the attack also enabled Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann to create several chances.
Yet, Matuidi also displayed the reason why Deschamps prefers him: his defensive effort as he made an incredible six tackles and three interceptions in the game. Matuidi also nullified the dribbling and crossing ability of Nacer Chadli.
Belgium kept forcing the ball to Chadli, who only completed one out of his 11 successful crosses (shout out to Ryan O’Hanlon for pointing out that stat on Ringer FC) simply because of Matuidi’s pressure. Matuidi was also brilliant in closing down Belgium’s most creative player Kevin De Bruyne especially in the second half. Matuidi might miss the final due to a possible concussion but his brilliance was the reason that Les Blues made it there.
