The 2022 World Cup knockouts are continuing where the group stages left off: exciting, fun, packed with tension. With so much happening every day, ESPN India attempts to pick out the one magical moment that defined the day's action.
For day 15, we pick a tackle and a clearance (that was actually a sublime long ball) from Antoine Griezmann in France's 3-1 win over Poland in the round-of-16.
You know who the heroes of this comprehensive win are. Even if you didn't watch the match, even if you just skimmed the highlights or simply read a match report, you know their names. Olivier Giroud, now the French men's national team's highest ever scorer. Kylian Mbappe, arguably the best player in the world right now... definitely the most frightening at this World Cup. Maybe Hugo Lloris, whose saves kept Poland at bay early on.
The name that goes unmentioned here -- that has gone unmentioned a lot in this tournament -- is arguably the most important in the team: Antoine Griezmann.
If Giroud is the cutting edge, Lloris the leader and Mbappe the fire, Griezmann is the (invisible) glue that holds this whole team together.
Nothing illustrates just how under-the-radar Griezmann has gone than a moment before France's second goal. The goal itself was superb, and the official highlights show you the key bits -- Giroud trapping the ball near the centre of the field before spreading it wide to Ousmanne Dembele. The winger driving at the Polish defence before moving in and passing it onto Mbappe, who takes a touch and absolutely smashes it into the roof of the net at the near post.
What goes missing in the highlights, the reports and maybe even when seen live is the sequence of play that precedes it: In open play, Griezmann is in the French penalty box, winning a clean tackle and smashing a near-perfect long ball out to the big man up top.
That's it? So what, you ask?
Well, for one it really isn't normal that someone like Griezmann be that deep in open play. He's the third highest goalscorer for the French (men's) national team. He's the third highest goalscorer in Atletico Madrid's history. This is a man who burst onto the scene as an exciting left wing forward who almost exclusively scored worldies (and that quite regularly) at Real Sociedad. A man who as a second striker won the golden boot as France finished second in Euro 2016. A man who moved into a more traditional #10 role and was France's (joint) top scorer as they won the 2018 World Cup. A man who has 276 goals and 131 assists for club and country.
Antoine Griezmann is Atletico Madrid's super-sub this season, but it's all part of their plan
Griezmann is one of the modern game's most prolific goalscorers and here was breaking up an attack inside his own box for the umpteenth time. This is not normal.
That small moment was one of many that dotted this game, this tournament, which have highlighted just how good a player Griezmann is: In Russia, he was one of the best, most complete forwards in the tournament. In Qatar, he is one of the best, most complete midfielders.
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A large part of the why he's gone unnoticed comes from how he vanished from the best-players-in-the-world conversation in 2019 when he made a (in hindsight) disastrous move to Barcelona. It didn't help that he had announced this by releasing a documentary (called 'the Decision') on the transfer, either. He struggled for game time and goals and any kind of form at Barca, the 'Decision' made him look a bit ridiculous, and people either outright dismissed him or just stopped talking about him. In 2021 he moved back to Atletico on loan, but continued to struggle -- till a permanent deal was found in early October.
If you'd been paying attention, you'd have seen Griezmann was slowly getting back to his best for Atletico since then. The occasional flashiness was still there, he wouldn't be himself without it, but there was a seriousness to him that's becoming for a player who's now a veteran. He was playing with a smile again. And as ever he kept running, always at full tilt, all game long.
Deschamps had never lost faith in his man, and when saw what he was doing at Atletico decided to use his most trustworthy player to plug some big holes in his first XI.
71 consecutive appearances.
Antoine Griezmann will break a France record against Poland-he hasn't missed a game since 2017 �� pic.twitter.com/lsXzxcLdba
- B/R Football (@brfootball) December 4, 2022
With Blaise Matuidi retired, and the incredible central pivot of Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kante injured, Deschamps had needed someone capable of doing quite a lot of things in the middle of the field. Which is why, if you keep an eye out for him, you can often see Griezmann everywhere in Qatar.
At times he's just behind Giroud, in the hole, pulling the strings. At others, he's carrying the ball out of defence. Or he's out wide, maintaining shape as one of Dembele or Mbappe goes marauding inside. Or running it out of the edge of his own box, dribbling directly into the opposition third.
Or he's making perfect tackles inside his own box and pinging it out of the back like a deep-lying regista to help up set up a goal.
For this underrated brilliance, for all the context that converged into making it happen, that's our moment of the day.