PARIS —
Kylian Mbappe came off the bench to score a late
equalizer as France settled for a 1-1 draw with Austria in its Nations League
encounter in Vienna on Friday.
اضافة اعلان
Mbappe appeared as a second-half replacement for Antoine
Griezmann at the Ernst-Happel Stadium and burst through in characteristic
fashion to smash in the 83rd-minute leveler, cancelling out Andreas Weimann’s
opener.
The result leaves
France, who won last year’s
edition of the Nations League, still without a win three games into the new
campaign.
It is bottom of League A, Group 1 with two points
after losing 2-1 at home to Denmark last weekend and then drawing 1-1 in
Croatia on Monday.
The Danes remain top of the group despite losing 1-0
at home to Croatia in Copenhagen on Friday, with Mario Pasalic scoring the only
goal of the game midway through the second half.
France will play its final match of the June
international break at home to Croatia on Monday before the group campaign
concludes in September.
“There is never any need to worry. We should always
be proud and just try to improve,” Mbappe told broadcaster TF1 before admitting
that he had still not fully recovered from the injury that forced him off
against
Denmark.
“No but if the coach needs me I will be there. There
is just one game left before the holidays so I can force it a little bit.”
The match in Vienna went ahead despite concern about
a huge hole that opened up on the same pitch during Austria’s 2-1 loss to
Denmark on Monday.
Playing its third
game under new coach
Ralf Rangnick, Austria took the lead eight minutes before
half-time when Konrad Laimer’s low ball in from the right was converted by the
Bristol City forward Weimann.
France coach Didier Deschamps sent on Mbappe for
Griezmann in the 63rd minute and RB Leipzig’s
Christopher Nkunku came on for
Kingsley Coman 11 minutes from time as they stepped up their search for the
leveler.
Mbappe had not played against Croatia after coming
off with a knee knock at half-time against Denmark, and he was fresh enough to
make the difference for the visitors.
A quick exchange of passes with Nkunku led to the
Paris Saint-Germain star breaking through to fire past goalkeeper Patrick Pentz
and score his 10th goal for his country this season.
Mbappe could then have won the game three minutes
from the end, but this time his shot from close range was turned onto the
crossbar by the goalkeeper.
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