France disappointed after the draw with Italy: Zidane faces the first setback in his return to the helm of Les Bleus

Scoring a goal and thinking you've already won: disappointed, frustrated, annoyed, the French admit that Roberto Mancini's Italy surprised them. In the first half because he didn't let the Bleus play until now unstoppable in the Nations League, in the second because after conceding the superiority and a fantastic goal from Olise, the best of his, they didn't give up. And they almost didn't take home the victory. In short, for the return of an idolized Zinédine Zidane, the celebration was overwhelming in the stands, much less on the pitch, where the Azzurri represented "his first setback" in his clear path thus far.

L'Equipe is bitterly disappointed, as it shows a photo of Olise's magical left-footed free-kick on its entire front page with the headline "A jewel and a mess", alluding to the feat of the Bayern striker and the blunders on the counterattack by Rabiot and Da Cunha, which favored Bastoni's equaliser.

Then, in the comments of his columnist, Vincent Duluc, the mea culpa becomes more articulated: "It shouldn't have been ruined" Zidane's evening, this is the meaning of his analysis: "After a rather poor first half, Les Bleus spoiled Zinédine Zidane's return to the Stade de France by giving away an avoidable draw against Italy. In attack, the fireworks will wait." The reason? "It is not enough to return to the Stade de France to resurrect the magic of ancient nights, nor to recover the presumed starters to impose a superiority, nor to grant all freedom to the attackers as long as they do something, and even less to sing at 1-0 'where are the Italians?' right before they tie. As if we had forgotten the history of France-Italy, of the upheavals and mutual cruelties."

A thought about a story of a duel that has become unique in the last 30 years of football history, from that quarter-final in 1998 with Italy eliminated on penalties followed by the mockery in the 2000 European Championship final, then by the great Italian revenge in Berlin. Even in the last 20 years of clear French superiority, the transalpine challenges have always been a separate challenge, where everything becomes possible. "The failure against Italy will at least have the merit of reminding Zidane that he still has work to do to make this team even more competitive", the stern Le Monde warned.

While the capital's newspaper, Le Parisien, summarized the evening in Saint-Denis as follows: "Wasted opportunities, a blunder and a red card, these are the reasons for Zidane's first slip-up with Les Bleus". As Le Figaro summarizes instead, "awaited like a hero for the great return to his garden, Zidane was unable to bring home another victory, held back by valiant Italians".