Zidane's First Victory with France

France national team captain Kylian Mbappé and his coach Zinedine Zidane dedicated their 1-0 victory in Zidane’s first match in charge of Les Bleus against host Turkey, who played with ten men, before Mbappé was forced off with an injury. Meanwhile, Belgium, under their new Dutch manager Marc Van Bommel, spoiled Roberto Mancini’s return to head Italy by defeating them 2-0 in the opening match of Group 1 in League A of the UEFA Nations League. Belgium will host their neighbors France tomorrow in the second round, while Italy will travel to Turkey on the same day.

In the first match, Turkey started strongly. From a free-kick, Salih Özcan lofted a high ball toward Barış Alper Yılmaz, whose shot was saved by French goalkeeper Mike Maignan. Defender Maxence Lacroix then cleared a subsequent attempt away from the goal line (4th minute). The French sought to make their presence felt quickly, as Ryan Sessegnon delivered a pass to Michael Olise, who laid it off to Mbappé near the edge of the penalty area. However, Mbappé failed to control it properly, and his weak shot went wide of the left post (17th minute).

The second half began with clear Turkish dominance, with Arda Güler making an impact with his movements. However, the home side overdid short passes in their own half, and a mistake led to a clearance that found Olise, who played a pass to a one-on-one Mbappé. The striker then fired a powerful shot to the right of Turkish goalkeeper Uğurcan Çakır to open the scoring (54th minute). Yet, the Real Madrid forward did not celebrate; he began limping before collapsing on the pitch, pain evident on his face as he clutched the back of his left knee. The Les Bleus captain attempted to continue playing for a short while before being substituted in the 59th minute.

In the second match, Belgium ended Mancini’s return to the Italian helm with a 2-0 win, thanks to goals from Myckel Balatansi (20th minute) and substitute Dodi Lukébakio (69th minute). With this victory, the Red Devils broke a winless streak of five matches against Italy (one draw and four defeats). This marks Belgium’s fifth win in the history of head-to-head meetings between the two sides, compared to Italy’s 17 wins and five draws in 27 matches.

Mancini entered the match with a starting lineup featuring many new and young faces, most notably Diego Coppola (22 years old, third international cap), Alessandro Romano (20 years old, first international cap), Nicolò Cambiaghi (25 years old, second international cap), and Inter striker Francesco Biondi (21 years old, tenth international cap).