Kylian Mbappe and Michael Olise were on target as France defeated Germany 2-0 in Stuttgart to seal third place in the 2024-25 Nations League on Sunday.
Having lost 5-4 in a thriller to Spain in the semi-finals, Les Bleus clinically defeated the hosts to consign Julian Nagelmann's side – beaten by Portugal on Wednesday – to fourth.
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Mike Maignan kept Niklas Fullkrug and Karim Adeyemi at bay as Germany made a fast start. The latter was then awarded a penalty before the decision was overturned, and the forward was booked for diving over the France goalkeeper.
Mbappe slipped when presented with a glorious chance prior to opening the scoring on the start of half-time.
He took an excellent first touch from Aurelien Tchouameni's long pass into the box, cut inside Joshua Kimmich and bent past Marc-Andre ter Stegen into the top-right corner.
TOR!
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@equipedefrance
@KMbappe
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The Real Madrid ace slammed one into the side-netting shortly after the restart prior to Deniz Undav seeing a low drive ruled out when referee Ivan Kruzliak judged Fullkrug had fouled Adrien Rabiot in the build-up after a trip to the pitch-side monitor.
Marcus Thuram curled an effort onto the right-hand post and was denied again by a strong save from Ter Stegen, who also brilliantly denied Mbappe's acrobatic edge-of-the-box strike and then kept out the Madrid forward when one-on-one.
But there was nothing Ter Stegen could do to prevent Mbappe laying one on a plate for Olise to tap in the insurance goal with six minutes to go after an electric break.
Data Debrief: Magic Mbappe wraps up third
It was a typically lively performance from Mbappe, who had a game-high six shots – three of which were on target and four of which were inside the box.
Olise's goal came from the bench, meaning France finished the tournament with five goals from substitutes in the 2024-25 Nations League. No other team has more.
Germany made a game fight of it, with France conceding 10 shots on their goal in the first half. The last time they did that was also against the same opposition in the semi-finals of Euro 2016.
