Michael Olise came off the bench to propel France to a 4-1 victory over Belgium in the Nations League, marking Zinedine Zidane’s first home win since taking charge of the national team. While Belgium threatened to secure their first competitive win over France in 45 years after Dodi Lukébakio’s first-half opener, the hosts staged a clinical late-game recovery.
Zidane, who rotated his squad heavily for the final match of the international window, handed debuts to Leny Yoro and goalkeeper Guillaume Restes. Despite Belgium missing Kevin De Bruyne and Youri Tielemans, they initially controlled the game when Roméo Lavia set up Lukébakio for the lead. However, France’s persistence paid off in the 77th minute when Désiré Doué equalized with a low strike. With only Ousmane Dembélé keeping his place among the 10 changes, zidane heavily rotated his team for the last match of this three-week long international window. With Dembélé again captaining the side in the absence of the injured Kylian Mbappé, the Manchester United defender Leny Yoro and the Toulouse goalkeeper Guillaume Restes made their debuts.
The momentum shifted rapidly as Rayan Cherki put France in front four minutes later, following an assist from Olise. Olise then secured the result by scrambling in a third goal in the 88th minute before adding a fourth in stoppage time after clever link-up play with Doué. Reflecting on the result, Zidane noted the nature of the match, telling TF1, “That’s football, that’s what we love. There were difficulties, but that’s part of the game.” He added that the team corrected their tactical gaps during an “extraordinary second half.” Scoring four times in 14 minutes to preserve Zidane’s unbeaten start and move closer to the quarter-finals, but the hosts turned the match on its head in a blistering finish. Making his debut in goal for Belgium, kept out efforts from Esteban Lepaul and Cherki as France pressed for an equaliser, but the dam eventually burst, maarten Vandevoordt. Beyond the reach of Vandevoordt, to haul France level, doué gathered the ball and shot on the turn.
France, having previously defeated Belgium 1-0 last week, now sits three points clear at the top of Group A1, moving closer to the quarter-finals. In other Nations League action, Italy defeated Turkey 3-1 in Bologna with goals from Gianluca Scamacca, Riccardo Calafiori, and Pio Esposito, deepening Turkey’s struggles with their fourth consecutive loss.
The group standings remain competitive as Belgium trails France by four points. Elsewhere, in Group B2, Hungary secured a 2-1 victory over Ukraine in Trnava thanks to a late goal from Mark Csinger. In Group B4, Viktor Gyökeres continued his scoring streak by netting in his seventh consecutive Nations League appearance to help Sweden beat Romania 1-0, while Bosnia and Herzegovina edged past Poland 1-0 via an Ivan Basic penalty.
The fixture list also saw drama in Group C2, where Burnley striker Marcus Edwards hit a stoppage-time winner to lead Cyprus to a 2-1 comeback victory over Latvia.
