The first half was truly one to forget from the French point of view. Against Senegal, they came close to falling behind twice and, despite perhaps having the best attack in the tournament, posed no threat whatsoever.
And that “no threat whatsoever” really has to be emphasized. According to the stats account ‘The xG Philosophy’, the World Cup co-favorites produced a lower expected goals value in the first half than mega-underdog Cape Verde managed yesterday against Spain.
France’s xG stood at 0.02 at half-time, while Cape Verde at least managed 0.04 expected goals against Spain in the first 45 minutes.
Mbappé & Co. are unlikely to be pleased with that statistic. But looking at the first half, the question of where a higher xG value was supposed to come from is also absolutely justified.
Maybe the French star-studded side will offer more in the second half.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.
