Les Bleus’ disappointing start to the Nations League continues as they earned a 1-1 draw against Ralf Rangnick’s Austria on June 10, courtesy of Kylian Mbappe’s 83rd-minute goal. Bristol City’s Andreas Weimann opened the scoring in Vienna to net his first international goal on his 17th appearance for his country.
The 30-year-old striker finished off a slick forward move in the 37th minute with a one-touch build-up from Marko Arnautovic and Conrad Laimer.
Nations League holders France, however, dominated the game as expected but were off-colour once again. Only after Mbappe and Christopher Nkunku were introduced in the closing 30 minutes did France burst into life.
The duo combined well, with the PSG striker laying off a ball to Nkunku on the halfway line before a perfect through ball found Mbappe on the edge of the box. A couple of touches later, he rifled the ball inside Patrick Pentz’s near post for an equaliser.
France could have even ended the game with a win as the forward duo combined again only to be denied by a superb stop form Pentz, tipping Mbappe’s low effort onto the bar and away to safety.
The late goal by Mbappe denied the hosts a chance to top their group, however, Denmark’s 1-0 home defeat against Croatia keeps Rangnick’s side second, just above the 2018 World Cup finalists, who also have same points in their kitty but are superior in goal difference.
Former Chelsea midfielder Mario Pasalic was the lone goalscorer at Denmark, scrambling the ball home from a corner to end Denmark’s perfect start in the competition.
Elsewhere, Manor Solomon scored a brace to record Israel’s first victory of the tournament in Group B2, beating Albania 2-1 in Tirana. Albania lead the game at the end of half-time after Chelsea forward Armando Broja scored from the penalty spot in injury time.
However, Solomon scored two goals in the next half to earn Israel their first win in this season of the competition. This also lifted the Israelis above Iceland and into top spot while Albania remained bottom.
Kazakhstan were denied their third victory on the bounce in Group C3 as Belarus snatched a late equaliser to draw 1-1 in Minsk. Abat Aimnetov fired the visitors into an early lead, but a late goal from Vladislav Malkevich earned the hosts a second point from three games.
In Group D1, Andorra earned only their fourth competitive win since 2017 as two late goals were enough to defeat Liechtenstein at the Estadi Nacional.
Denmark now lead Group A1 with six points and are followed by Austria, who are second with four points. Croatia and France are the remaining teams in the group with four and two points respectively.
Portugal lead Group A2 with seven points from three games and are followed by Spain, who have eight points in their kitty. Czech Republic with four and Switzerland with no points are the other teams in the group.
Italy lead Group A3 with four points, with Hungary second in the table with three points. Germany have two points and England one from two games in that group.
Netherlands with six points and Belgium with three points are the two toppers in group A4 and are followed by Poland and Wales who have three and no points respectively.
In Group B1, both Scotland and Ukraine top the charts with three points each despite playing a solitary game. Armenia and Ireland are the other teams in the group, with the former having three points from two games while the latter having no points in two games.
Israel lead group B2 with four points and are followed by Iceland (2) and Albania (1). Meanwhile, Group B3 sees Finland lead the table with four points followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina, who are also on the same points. Montenegro (3) and Romania (0) are the other teams from that group.
Norway (7) and Serbia (6) lead group B4 and are followed by Sweden (3) and Slovenia (1). Turkey and Luxembourg top Group C1 and are followed by Faroe Islands and Lithuania. Greece and Kosovo lead Group C2 with nine and six points, respectively, and are followed by Northern Ireland and Cyprus.
Kazakhstan tops Group C3 followed by Slovakia, Belarus and Azerbaijan. Group C4 sees Georgia and North Macedonia be the top-2 teams from the group followed by Bulgaria and Gibraltar.
Latvia with nine points and Moldova with four top Group D1 and are followed by Andorra and Liechtenstein. The last group, D2 sees Estonia in the top position, followed by Malta and San Marino.
