World Cup 2018: France vs Uruguay was the story of one man's redemption

Fernando Muslera may grab the headlines - for all the wrong reasons - but the true story of this match was the tale of a young man's redemption.

In the 2014 World Cup, in that gladiatorial arena that is the Maracana, Mats Hummels had dragged Raphael Varane along as he ran into the six-yard box, following the path of one of those Toni Kroos laser-guided freekicks and smashed in the solitary goal that would see the Germans ease past France in their quarterfinal.

It had been Varane's error. One that had cost France everything.

Fast forward to 2018, though, and it was Varane doing the eliminating.

Over the past four years, the centre-back has learned a trick or two himself - that happens when you practice set-plays day in and day out with the likes of Sergio Ramos and Cristiano Ronaldo day-in and day-out - and on the 39th minute of a sultry Novgorod evening, he put his newly-improved skill set to good use.

As Cristhian Stuani readied himself to head a nice-looking, but seemingly harmless Antoine Griezmann set-piece away, Varane ghosted in, timing his run to perfection, getting just the right-connection on the whipped-in ball to glance it deep into the far corner of Fernando Muslera's net.

Less than five minutes later, Martin Caceres almost repeated the trick at the other end - but his header was pawed away brilliantly by a diving Hugo Lloris and as Diego Godin smacked the rebound miles over the crossbar from a little over a yard out, Oscar Tabarez would have been forgiven for thinking this wasn't his day.

When, with an hour of high-intensity football gone, Fernando Muslera allowed a Griezmann shot to go straight through him - a goal that not even the French trequartista felt was worthy of much celebration - there wasn't much the grand ol' man of international football could do from the touchline. As Jose Maria Gimenez's tears towards the end showed, there was little the men in sky-blue and black could do on the pitch either.

It had all started rather well, Caceras and Nahitan Nandez embodying that loco, run-full-pelt philosophy of Tabarez, Rodrigo Bentancur, and Lucas Torreira chasing everything down, Luis Suarez popping up, implausibly, everywhere you looked.

France had been limited to glimpses of that vast pool of sheer footballing magique at their disposal, a lovely touch from Griezmann here, a burst of naked pace from the downright frightening Kylian Mbappe there, N'Golo Kante putting down fires everywhere, Paul Pogba pulling the strings as he ate up the Nizhny turf with that giant, gentle, gait of his.

Varane's goal - and the Caceras/Godin miss - killed it dead.

Uruguay missed the injured Edinson Cavani desperately - he'd ripped Portugal apart in the earlier knock-out tie, and he'd been playing some of the best football of his career in this tournament - and by the time Griezmann had squeezed his shot through the fingertips of Muslera, the much-vaunted quarter became a showcase of Didier Deschamps smart game management, France nullifying any momentum Uruguay manager to build up by simply playing keep-ball and doing nothing silly with it.

There were moments when the whole thing looked like it might escalate - as matches with Uruguay often tend to -. Cristian Rodriguez and Kylian Mbappe right in the middle of it, an extravagant flick from the Frenchman inviting a flick of anger for the Uruguayan (the roll of agony enough to fill Neymar's heart with pride); but as with this match, a potential classic, all it do was threaten to get going. It never really did.

France deserved their win and will be tough, tough opponents for whoever it is of Belgium and Brazil that will make it through what should be a belter of a quarterfinal up in Kazan.