Key events
45 min: … and now Mbappe finds himself in more space down the left! He shoots from a tight angle but can’t force the ball past Skorupski, who blocks with his feet at the near post and is having quite the game. Again, the corner leads to nothing.
44 min: France are beginning to seriously threaten now, and Hernandez powers down the left, crossing low. Zalewski, the only man in the six-yard box, hooks clear.
43 min: Rabiot is booked for an agricultural clip on Szymański’s heel.
42 min: Barcola spins elegantly down the inside-left channel and into the box. He’s not able to shoot, though, because Mbappe takes charge and flicks a cute shot across the keeper. Skorupski sticks out a strong arm to deflect the ball inches wide of the right-hand post. Great play all round. Nothing comes of the resulting corner.
41 min: Bison Grass vodka, man. That is some good stuff.
40 min: Dembele attempts to tear clear down the right but has the ball taken off his toe by a sliding Kiwior. France should get a corner, but they don’t get one. Goal kick. Both teams have benefitted from such a mistake now. Meanwhile here’s some pennant-punditry pedantry from Grant Tennille, who can also speak for me: “The issue here, which to be honest I’d never really considered before, is that serifs simply aren’t a good look on a pennant. That, and including lower-case; also a poor aesthetic decision. To be fair, they are out of the tournament, so I can’t really fault someone for multi-tasking with a bottle of Żubrówka.”
38 min: Dembele dribbles down the right and feeds Kante infield. Kante shuttles the ball further into the middle for Tchouameni, whose low shot from the edge of the D is deflected wide left. The resulting corner sees Upamecano cushion a header down for Saliba, who hooks wildly over the bar.
36 min: Poland are giving as good as they’re getting here. A much-improved performance. Too late for them, sadly, but here we are.
34 min: Zalewski sends Zieliński racing down the left and dinks infield for Lewandowski, in a bit of central space, ten yards out. Lewandowski plants a downward header towards the bottom-left corner, but it flies just wide. Maignan had it covered, I think, though it should have been a corner, the ball taking a small deflection off Saliba. But France are awarded a goal kick. For a player of Lewandowski’s quality, that goes down as a huge chance and a poor miss.
32 min: Moder slips when launching long from deep for Lewandowski. His pass still nearly finds the target, though, and for a second it looks like Poland’s captain will latch onto the ball and burst clear through the middle. But it just evades him, and flies through to Maignan, who smothers on the edge of his box.
30 min: … and we’re back.
28 min: A drinks break. It’s very sunny in Dortmund, the mercury nudging 28°C.
26 min: Barcola drives with purpose down the left and sends in a low cross that forces Bednarek to hack behind for France’s third corner of the game. Dembele takes but it’s an easy claim for Skorupski.
24 min: … Mbappe attempts to break upfield on the counter. He spins Zalewski, who drags him back. Zalewski goes into the book.
23 min: Szymański whips a vicious cross in from the left. With Lewandowski lurking, Kounde is forced to concede a corner. From which …
21 min: France press forward but Poland have a lot of players back. No way through. Dembele nutmegs Moder but there are other red shirts in the road. Kante, all perpetual energy, eventually runs the ball out for a goal kick.
19 min: Kiwior ships possession in midfield and suddenly Kante is leading a four-on-two charge. Kante slips Dembele into the box down the right. Dembele opens his body but slaps a shot straight at Skorupski, who nevertheless has spread himself bravely. Kante’s late-career resurgence, this glorious Indian summer, continues apace.
17 min: Moder has a dig from distance. Full marks for ambition if nothing else. “I for one am happy to see Pennant Watch make a triumphant return, it is actually one of the things I enjoy the most about the MBM,” writes Espen Bommen. “Which now as I’m writing it out might not be a ringing endorsement of the actual MBM but that’s not how I meant it. Honestly. I just think ranking pennants is a fun little thing to do.” Hey, we’ll take whatever we can get.
15 min: Szymański powers down the inside-left channel and takes a shot that deflects off Hernandez and out for a corner on the left. Urbański meets the set piece with a shot that flies straight at Maignan, who fumbles but collects at the second attempt, then looks to start a counter. Lewandowski clatters into him from behind and concedes a foul that puts a stop to Maignan’s caper. Lewandowski fortunate not to go into the book for sheer cynicism.
13 min: Mbappé spins into space in the centre circle and sends Kante romping upfield with a simple straight pass. Not sure whether Kante tries to lob Skorupski from 35 yards or flick the ball wide left for Barcola. Either way, he doesn’t pull it off. Goal kick.
11 min: Dembele jinks into space down the right. He whistles a low cross through the six-yard box. Barcola can’t poke it home. Hernández, haring in from the left, meets it with a drive towards the bottom-left corner. It’s well hit, but Skorupski sticks out a foot to divert it around the post. Nothing comes of the corner. France dangerous there, though.
10 min: Austria have taken the lead against the Dutch in Berlin. Our Baz has the details, and the group currently looks like this.
8 min: Mbappé, black eye mask on, drops a shoulder to glide infield from the left flank. A brief flash of danger, but there’s nobody around to help.
6 min: Poland go up the other end and show in attack for the first time. Zieliński threads a shot towards the bottom right from distance. Maignan handles it well.
5 min: Dembelé hits a laughably poor corner over everyone’s head and out for a goal kick, but gets a second chance at delivery because the referee hadn’t blown his whistle. The second effort is much better, and Upamecano should meet it with a header at the far post, but for some reason doesn’t attack the ball, which sails out for a goal kick.
4 min: France quickly establish their authority, probing this way and that. Poland happy to sit back for now. Then suddenly Barcola bursts down the left and wins a corner off Moder.
2 min: No pyro, no party, as they say. A lot of smoke drifting across the pitch. Perhaps some of it gets in Skorupski’s eyes, as the Polish keeper nearly tees up Mbappé 12 yards out with a blind and underhit pass across the face of his own goal to Dawidowicz. The defender intercepts just in time. He swivels and dribbles clear, getting his keeper, and Poland, out of trouble.
Poland get the ball rolling. France’s kit is lovely. That oversized coq just perfect when you get used to it. Just Fontaine would surely approve.
The teams are out! A rare old atmosphere, which is no surprise, it is the Westfalenstadion after all. France in blue, Poland in second-choice red. Coins about to be tossed, hands shaken, fists bumped, anthems sung. Poland Is Not Yet Lost initially sounds a bit stiff and stilted, but once you work out what it’s trying to do, it actually swings. A bit like The Shape of Jazz to Come by Ornette Coleman in that respect. Really nice. La Marseillaise meanwhile is the greatest anthem in the world, and we don’t write the rules. Take it away, Edith. We’ll be off in a minute or two!
Pennant Watch. Welcome to the latest edition of the occasional feature that only runs when your MBM hack has run out of things to say, is reduced to desperate vamping, and has been able to source the appropriate photos. The ornamental trinket Kylian Mbappé will be handing over during the pre-match ceremonial exchanges is simple but extremely classy. You can’t go wrong with that tricolour. Extra marks for the voluminous braiding.
Poland’s by contrast gives off a pungent whiff of will-this-do? It’s all over the shop. Fonts a-plenty. The designer perhaps late to meet everyone else at the pub. It’s also vaguely reminiscent of the masthead of DC Thomson’s conservative-with-a-small-c periodical The People’s Friend. A pennant with traditional family values since 1869.
The last time France met Poland, les Bleus knocked the Eagles out of the 2022 World Cup. You can relive that here! Now!
It was a third French win in four meetings, and an eighth game unbeaten for France, who haven’t been defeated by Poland since a weird 4-0 reverse in Paris in 1982. That thrashing came hot on the heels of Poland’s 3-2 third-place play-off win at that year’s World Cup, a game that still stands as the Poles’ only competitive victory over France. Overall, in 17 meetings, France have won nine and Poland just three.
While there’ll be no Scotland-style heartbreak at the end of this game, with France already through and Poland already eliminated, there is still some jeopardy. Let Uefa’s official literature explain, because they’re the ones making this group stage so complicated after all.
France will be through to the round of 16 in the top two if they avoid defeat against Poland or if Austria do not beat Netherlands. France will win the group if they win and Netherlands do not. If France and Netherlands both win or both draw they will be split for first and second place by overall goal difference, then overall goals scored, then disciplinary points, then European Qualifiers rankings. Similarly if Netherlands and France both lose, they will be split for second and third place by the same criteria.
There’s nothing on the line for Poland, who are guaranteed to finish bottom of Group D whatever happens this afternoon, by dint of having already lost the head-to-head with Austria. Having said that, a valedictory Polish win would bring its own bittersweet emotions, as depending on how everything else pans out today and tomorrow, there’s a possible scenario in which Poland go home with three points and a win while another country makes it through to the knockouts with just two points and two draws. That would be pretty irritating, no?
Kylian Mbappé is back, baby. Eight days after breaking his nose against Austria, France’s captain returns to action sporting a protective mask that, according to his coach Didier Deschamps, restricts his vision. He’s one of two changes to the French starting XI in the wake of the goalless draw with the Netherlands, Bradley Barcola also coming into the team. Antoine Griezmann and Marcus Thuram step down.
Poland also have big captain-related news. Robert Lewandowski makes his first start of the tournament, too little, too late for the homeward-bound Poles. He’s one of five changes following the 3-1 defeat to Austria. Łukasz Skorupski replaces Wojciech Szczęsny in goal, while Jakub Moder, Sebastian Szymański and Kacper Urbański also start. Jakub Piotrowski, Adam Buksa, Krzysztof Piątek and Bartosz Slisz are benched.
The teams
France: Maignan, Kounde, Upamecano, Saliba, Hernandez, Kante, Tchouameni, Rabiot, Dembele, Mbappe, Barcola.
Subs: Samba, Pavard, Mendy, Camavinga, Griezmann, Giroud, Muani, Thuram, Zaire Emery, Fofana, Coman, Clauss, Areola, Konate.
Poland: Skorupski, Bednarek, Dawidowicz, Kiwior, Frankowski, Sebastian Szymanski, Moder, Zielinski, Zalewski, Lewandowski, Urbanski.
Subs: Szczesny, Salamon, Walukiewicz, Piotrowski, Swiderski, Grosicki, Romanchuk, Puchacz, Buksa, Damian Szymanski, Bereszynski, Bulka, Piatek, Slisz, Skoras.
Referee: Marco Guida (Italy).
Preamble
France are already assured of a place in the round of 16, while Poland have already been knocked out. Come on in, the water’s lovely. Kick-off is at 5pm BST. It’s on!