Alessandro Bastoni cancelled out Michael Olise's free-kick to earn Italy a 1-1 draw away to France on Friday, and Dayot Upamecano was sent off late on as Zinedine Zidane's first home match in charge of Les Bleus ended all square at the Stade de France.
Zidane took charge of France after the World Cup and walked out at the stadium where he scored some of the most iconic goals of his playing career — his time as a France player ended with a red card against Italy in the 2006 World Cup final. Twenty years on, his first home fixture brought a first stumble: it was the first goal conceded by his France.
Olise broke the deadlock in the 55th minute. Fagioli fouled Cherki on the edge of the box, Cherki touched the free-kick to the Bayern Munich forward, and his left-footed strike took a deflection off the wall and dipped in off the underside of the crossbar. It was Olise's tenth goal since the start of the season, and he has now scored or assisted in each of France's first three matches under Zidane.
Italy carried the greater threat before the interval. Moise Kean scuffed a point-blank tap-in from Kayode's cut-back in the eighth minute and had a later effort ruled out for offside against Sebastiano Esposito. After the restart Gianluigi Donnarumma produced a double save to keep out Désiré Doué and Ousmane Dembélé, then denied Olise himself.
The equaliser arrived in the 68th minute. Bastoni surged out of defence, robbed the distracted Lucas Da Cunha of a loose pass from Adrien Rabiot and fired past Mike Maignan from the edge of the area — a second consecutive scoring appearance for the Inter Milan defender after his goal against Turkey.
Donnarumma remained Italy's decisive player, getting down to save Rabiot's angled drive and flying to deny Camavinga twice in the closing stages. With Upamecano already booked after a flashpoint with Kean, the France centre-back saw a second yellow card for wrestling the striker to the ground in the 85th minute and left his side a man light for the final stages. In stoppage time Bastoni slid in to cut out Olise as France appealed in vain for a penalty.
The result leaves France top of the group on seven points, with Belgium second on six after Kevin de Bruyne's double sealed a 3-0 win over Turkey. Italy have four points and face Turkey on Monday at the Dall'Ara, while France host Belgium at the Stade de France, where Upamecano will be suspended.
Sources
https://football-italia.net/nations-league-france-1-1-italy-bastoni-paris/ https://sport.quotidiano.net/en/calcio/nations-league-francia-italia-1-1-bastoni-replica-a-olise-4a1137ea https://bulinews.com/olise-shines-upamecano-sees-red-france-and-italy-share-spoils-stade-france
