Not Kylian Mbappé, not a difficulty? Maybe it’s not quite that easy for France, who seemed disoriented at the beginning of the game but managed to gather enough momentum to fend off a determined Belgium. The debate around his absence will likely continue, as will the broader worries about player workload that have clouded this Nations League match. Additionally, more forceful resistance may have contributed to the overall gloom.

In the end, two goals—one a penalty—by Randal Kolo Muani ensured that France advances to the quarterfinals by sandwiching a response by Loïs Openda. Although Belgium’s 43-year streak without a convincing victory over their neighbors has been prolonged, they made a valuable contribution to a night that generated a lot of discussion over the significance of this match in the global context.

Though it seemed weaker at first, it should have been one of the biggest matches in European football history. There is a lot of unease in France about Mbappé’s decision to skip this round of games in order to manage his workload following an injury. He is accused of picking and choosing which opportunities to lead Les Bleus, but he was not the only player to skip out on action. The main theme was the wish to avoid taking a chance on overexertion, as evidenced by the excuses given to Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne from their Belgium duties. The three most prominent figures involved in this matter had all determined that taking part in it would be excessively expensive.

Thus, it seemed ominously appropriate that the afternoon had been devoted to studying legal proceedings initiated by Fifpro and European Leagues against Fifa for imposing an excessively extended schedule of matches, located four miles away in a conference space close to the center of Brussels’s bureaucratic apparatus. If one were bogged down in the minutiae, all it would take was a twenty-minute trip to witness the tangible effects of football’s enslavement to consumerism in action.

International windows should sooner feel the pinch if cutting the schedule meant slightly jeopardizing their own interests, according to some of the more avaricious stakeholders at the club game summit. albeit legendary rivalries such as these are not as problematic as distant, ill-planned Club World Cups with unclear objectives, it was encouraging to witness both teams provide a show that, albeit lacking those high-profile moments, captured the audience’s interest with a steady stream of opportunities and talking points.

It wasn’t just Mbappé’s absence that made France seem foreign. They have said goodbye to Olivier Giroud and Antoine Griezmann since Euro 2024; each is unique in their own right, and for extended stretches of time, they appeared to be indecisive. That was undoubtedly the situation prior to halftime, when Belgium probably questioned how the game was still in play.