Tamer than Cape Verde: this stat humiliates Mbappé & co. | OneFootball

The first half was truly one to forget from the French perspective. Against Senegal, they came close to falling behind twice and, despite perhaps having the best attack in the tournament, posed no threat at all. 

And that “no threat at all” 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 did yesterday against Spain. 

France’s xG value at halftime stood at 0.02, while Cape Verde at least managed 0.04 expected goals against Spain in the opening 45 minutes. 

Mbappé & Co. are unlikely to be pleased with that statistic. But given the first half, it is also entirely fair to ask where a higher xG value was supposed to come from. 

The French looked much livelier straight away in the second half. None other than the Real superstar made it 1-0 for France after a brilliant pass from Bayern’s Olise. Around 15 minutes later, Bradley Barcola scored the 2-0 for Les Bleus. After Mbaye pulled one back to make it 2-1, Mbappé soon put the game to bed with the 3-1. 

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 FRANCK FIFE - AFP or licensors