Raphael Varane’s soaring leap and a clanger from the customarily reliable Fernando Muslera allowed France’s star-studded side passage to the World Cup semi-finals as they disposed of a toothless Uruguay.
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The South American nation of fewer than 4 million have been the tournament’s biggest overachievers for the entirety of its existence, but the limitations of their renowned “Garra Charrua” – the national fighting spirit – were exposed in Nizhny Novgorod by a France team that still looks like it is playing well within itself just two games from hoisting the trophy.
Deprived of star striker Edinson Cavani, Uruguay would have to play a perfect game, and faced an uphill task when Varane, the Real Madrid center back, rose high to put an unstoppable glancing header into the corner near the end of the first half, following a tricksy stutter-step delivery from Antoine Griezmann.
Muslera’s misguided attempt to palm away a drifting but straightforward effort from Griezmann on the 60th minute essentially sealed the outcome, with the European team on the ascendant in the closing half-hour.
Under the 12-year reign of their increasingly grizzled mastermind Oscar Tabarez, Uruguay have rarely strayed from their core values of defensive discipline, tactical acumen and relentless determination to get them through knockout games, but the formula also depends on world-class attackers breaking the deadlock.
With a forlorn Cavani looking on from the bench after failing to recover from a calf injury sustained during his match-winning performance against Portugal in the previous round, replaced by Girona’s Cristhian Stuani as Luis Suarez’ striker partner, the team set out cautiously in the opening minutes.
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In fairness, so did Didier Deschamps’ Les Bleus. All eyes were on Kylian Mbappe after his star-making turn against Argentina, but the speedy French attacker often found himself without support on his ambitious forages up the pitch. Still, the best chance of the opening minutes came to him, when he failed to correctly time the leap for a free header.
Instead, it was arguably the man at the opposite side of the pitch, Hugo Lloris, who guaranteed a nerve-free passage after he produced an outstanding stretching save to deny what would have been a sure goal from a Martin Caceres header, at the close of the first half.