November 22, (THEWILL) – The French national team were held to a 2-2 draw by Greece in their final European Championship qualifying match on Tuesday, denying their hopes of ending their campaign with a 100% record. Playing in Athens, manager Didier Deschamps’ side entered the game high on confidence after thrashing Gibraltar 14-0 over the weekend.
However, a resilient Greek defence and inspired goalkeeping display from Nottingham Forest’s Odysseas Vlachodimos saw the hosts claim a point. France controlled the early proceedings with chances for Ousmane Dembele and Theo Hernandez. The breakthrough came just before half-time when Randal Kolo Muani fired Les Blues in front from a tight angle.
Greece started the second half brightly and turned the game around within 10 minutes, thanks to goals from Anastasios Bakasetas and Fotis Ioannidis.
The World Cup finalists responded as Deschamps introduced Kylian Mbappé and Kingsley Coman from the substitutes bench. It was new call up Youssouf Fofana, who dragged France level with a long-range rocket after 74 minutes.
Mbappé was denied a stoppage-time winner by the crossbar and goal-line technology ruled out Kingsley Coman’s late strike to see France’s qualifying campaign end without a perfect record.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.