France head coach Didier Deschamps revealed that Kylian Mbappe found his mask complicated despite scoring for the team against Poland at Dortmund on Tuesday. The France captain suffered a broken nose in the team’s opening Euro game against Austria while trying to head the ball but collided with the opposition’s defender.
Mbappe, who recently signed a deal with Real Madrid, then missed the game against the Netherlands. However, the talisman scored from the spot-kick in the 56th minute to register his first goal in the European championships.
“Despite everything he has gone through, a week after the blow, it was complicated,” Deschamps told reporters through a translator. “I thought he was quite good on his feet with the mask. He needed to get used to it.
“But when he sweats, that sticks in his eyes and he needed to wipe his eyes.”
Mbappe even removed his mask while celebrating in front of his fans. Deschamps feels the game time must have given Mbappe some confidence as France gears up for the round of 16.
“He’s hungry to play and the game would have done him some good,” Deschamps said, “especially given what we’re going to be doing [next].”
Meanwhile, France hasn’t yet scored an open-play goal in the ongoing tournament. They secured a 1-0 win against Austria after an own goal and played a goalless draw against the Netherlands. Thus, they haven’t been as comprehensive as it was expected.
“I would be a lot more concerned if there were no chances, but obviously there is a little bit of room for improvement,” Deschamps said. “Maybe there are other teams who have given off something a bit different, but the fact we haven’t scored limits our performance. We are here where we want to be.”
The gaffer is hopeful that they can get back to scoring goals as they had done so in the qualifying rounds.
“We need to score more goals, we need to be more clinical, and I am looking for that,” Deschamps said. “We can improve but that’s it. We need to hit them where it hurts but we have always had a goal average that is quite impressive, for these three games it hasn’t quite been there.
“But I am positive, I am always positive. It is a new competition starting for us.”
France will play their round of 16 match on Monday but their opponent is yet to be confirmed.
