Kylian Mbappe and Michael Olise were on target as defeated 2-0 in Stuttgart to seal third place in the 2024-25 Nations League on Sunday.
Having lost 5-4 in a thriller to Spain in the semi-finals, Les Bleus clinically defeated the hosts to consign Julian Nagelmann’s side – beaten by Portugal on Wednesday – to fourth.
Mike Maignan kept Niklas Fullkrug and Karim Adeyemi at bay as made a fast start. The latter was then awarded a penalty before the decision was overturned, and the forward was booked for diving over the goalkeeper.
Mbappe slipped when presented with a glorious chance prior to opening the scoring on the start of half-time.
He took an excellent first touch from Aurelien Tchouameni’s long into the box, cut inside Joshua Kimmich and bent past Marc-Andre ter Stegen into the top-right corner.
TOR!
@equipede
@KMbappe
#NationsLeague | #FRA | #GERFRA 0:1 pic.twitter.com/6Bj8pwXaeS— UEFA Nations League DE (@EURO2024DE) June 8, 2025
The Real Madrid ace slammed one into the side-netting shortly after the restart prior to Deniz Undav seeing a low drive ruled out when referee Ivan Kruzliak judged Fullkrug had fouled Adrien Rabiot in the build-up after a trip to the pitch-side monitor.
Marcus Thuram curled an effort onto the right-hand post and was denied again by a strong save from Ter Stegen, who also brilliantly denied Mbappe’s acrobatic edge-of-the-box strike and then kept out the Madrid forward when one-on-one.
But there was nothing Ter Stegen could do to prevent Mbappe laying one on a plate for Olise to tap in the insurance goal with six minutes to go after an electric break.
Data Debrief: Fifty not out as Magic Mbappe wraps up third
It was a typically lively performance from Mbappe, who had a game-high six shots – three of which were on target and four of which were inside the box. His strike was his landmark 50th in a shirt.
Olise’s goal came from the bench, meaning finished the tournament with five goals from substitutes in the 2024-25 Nations League. No other team has more.
made a game fight of it, with conceding 10 shots on their goal in the first half. The last time they did that was also against the same opposition in the semi-finals of Euro 2016.
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