da dobrowin： Les Bleus have made the Euro 2024 quarter-finals but not one player has yet scored from open play, making changes essential against Portugal

da wazamba： After France had fluked their way into the quarter-finals of the Euro 2024 with a dreadfully dull 1-0 win over Belgium, William Saliba argued that Les Bleus "deserve some credit" for the way they play. They're not going to get any, though – not if they continue sending supporters to sleep with their boring brand of football.

There may be plenty to admire about the way in which Saliba & Co. contain opponents – they've kept more clean sheets than any other team in the tournament thus far – but the media's attention remains firmly fixed on France's malfunctioning forward line. And rightly so.

Didier Deschamps has a wonderful array of attacking talent and yet his team have scored only three goals in Germany – two own goals and a penalty. It's a shocking statistic, utterly embarrassing in fact. Deschamps doesn't care, though. He never has.

GettyWater-carrying winning machine

As a player, Deschamps was derided by Eric Cantona for his lack of creativity and flair but the "water-carrier" won it all, with Marseille, Juventus and France. This was a character who fully embraced and eventually came to epitomise the (in)famous Bianconeri ethos that "winning isn't important, it's the only thing that counts." It's not in the least bit surprising, then, that he's proven the most conservative of coaches.

"At the highest level, if you don't have a solid defensive base, you can't get by," he once said. "In one match, yes. But over a whole competition? No."

It was a comment that evoked memories of the old Sir Alex Ferguson line that "Attack wins you games, defence wins you titles" – but the stubborn Scot was never as negative as Deschamps.

AdvertisementGetty Images'Repeat, repeat, repeat'

Deschamps has argued, with some degree of justification, that pragmatism is imperative in international football. "It's hard to evolve when you only have 15 days or three weeks to practice and correct and change tactics," he pointed out six years ago. “The players are smart, but they play a particular way with their clubs. The Real Madrid coach won’t ask for the same things as the Paris Saint-Germain coach or the Chelsea coach. So, you need to find a tactical plan that works for all of them. For me, the goal is to make the most of each player, and then repeat, repeat, repeat."

The problem is, though, that doing the same thing over and over again may create the "good habits" Deschamps hailed after the Belgium game, but it also runs the risk of making a team painfully predictable. Indeed, in Germany, France are playing without any imagination, which is perhaps the inevitable consequence of 12 years of being subjected to such a defensive dogma.

Getty'Results in Russia proved me right'

It was hoped after winning the 2018 World Cup that Deschamps might let the handbrake off, but his attitude was very much, 'If it ain't broke, why fix it?'

"You can win the World Cup in other ways," Deschamps admitted, "But should I change just to please my critics? The results in Russia proved me right."

Deschamps is just as convinced he'll be vindicated at the Euros, too. In fact, he's already claimed, like Saliba, that France are not getting sufficient praise for their performances in Germany and he was annoyed by the suggestion that the celebrations that followed the 1-0 win over Belgium were excessive.

"I'm immensely proud to be in the quarter-finals," he told reporters in Dusseldorf on Monday evening. "Even if we are expected to be here, you can't trivialise [the achievement]. It was a high-level match, very close, and when we win, we are demonstrative. You have to enjoy every moment. We're not going to get carried away, but we're in the quarter-finals."

Getty 'I'd like us to create more chances…'

The question is, though, what now? Because France's no-risk strategy feels unsustainable.

In the history of the European Championship, there have been five instances of teams winning 1-0 thanks to an own goal – Deschamps' France are responsible for three of those victories, and while he's always argued that a team needs a bit of good fortune once in a while, their luck is likely to run out eventually.

Deschamps defended the "waiting game" his side played against a Belgium team he rather amusingly labelled "cautious" without an apparent trace of irony, but he also acknowledged, "you can't win through possession alone. I'd like us to create more chances."

Playing a more offensive line-up against France would be one way to achieve that objective.