The clock reads 84:42, the score Austria 0 - 1 France. A French freekick has just been broken up and Austria have a rare chance to counter into space... for once Didier Deschamp's team look to have overcommitted forward. Patrick Wimmer runs onto the clearance, nudges the ball through a hopeless William Saliba tackle and he's through. A wave of red rises in the stands as Wimmer runs clean through into the French half.
He takes six steps past Saliba, one touch of the ball and suddenly... a diminutive figure flashes past him, nips the ball off his feet, and calmly passes it back to his keeper Mike Maignan. You can see now why the vast swathe of French fans in the Dusseldorf Arena hadn't seemed too worried during the break. He was there, that midfielder of theirs. Wearing #13, his name is N'Golo Kante, and this is what he does.
When you saw the lineup France had put up for their Euro 2024 opener against Austria, you may not have noticed it at first. Kylian Mbappe, check. Marcus Thuram and Ousmane Dembele, check and check. Antoine Griezmann, yep. Maignan in goal, of course. Oooo, Saliba picked ahead of Ibrahima Konate and Benjamin Pavard, interesting. Right then, everything's as it should be. Wait a minute. Who's that in midfield again? Right next to Griezmann and the omnipresent Adrien Rabiot... is that N'Golo Kante?
If you were surprised, it would have been completely understandable. The last time Kante had played a competitive match for France, they were still the defending world champions, in a Nations League match way back in June 2022. In the two years since Aurelien Tchouameni and Eduardo Camavinga had made the French central midfield theirs, shining so bright at Real Madrid it had been inevitable that they would. When Kante moved to Al Ittihad in Saudi Arabia in the summer of 2023, everyone thought that was it. There was no way back for him now, surely.
Except here he is. A full season in Saudi Arabia where he played 42 games across all competitions convinced Didier Dechamps that his old favourite was back to his fittest. And he knows better than anyone that there isn't a midfielder in the world quite like a fit N'Golo Kante.
Brought back into the fold, he started a couple of friendlies before the Euros -- again understandable if you missed it, being as it was against Luxembourg and Canada -- and right into the XI he went for the Euros starter.
Speaking ahead of the match, Marcus Thuram had warned everyone: "I have never seen anything like it, it's horrible," he had said. "We can't play anymore; we can't play in training anymore. As soon as we have him on our team, we know we have won."
"I have the impression that there are three of him!"
Ralf Rangnick's men would certainly agree. They pressed high, they pressed furiously, stood toe-to-toe with France, only to run into an inspired Kante again and again. In a throwback performance underlined by that stopping of the Wimmer counter, Kante made more tackles (3), more interceptions (2) and... created more chances (2) than any other French player. It wasn't just the physical covering of ground that impressed (as vast as that distance was), but the timing of it all. He didn't just patrol the middle of the park, of course not. When Austria threatened to build momentum down their left, he was there. On the right? Say enchante to N'Golo.
Playing at a 'lower' level has clearly not dulled any of his ability to read the game like he's written it.
"His performance? You saw him," Deschamps said after the match. "We were sure about recalling him. He is smart - on a technical level he has the capacity to read balls and project himself. He was really bright tonight and we needed that."
They definitely had needed that. Scraping through 1-0 winners, Kante would be named man of the match, an easy choice for the adjudicators. His response to all the praise was typical of the man: "Thanks everyone! I'm delighted to be back, it's nice! I like to be with the national team."
The European Championships have been served notice. N'Golo Kante is back, and he's still about as brilliant as ever.
And so, with that trademark interception, and his MOTM performance, Kante takes our Moment of the Day from day 4 of Euro 2024.