Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.
Zinedine Zidane hailed the “pure talent” of Michael Olise after France’s win over Belgium on Monday, but he was also glad to see other players contribute after making sweeping changes.
Zidane made nine alterations to the team that beat Turkiye 1-0 in his first game in charge last Friday, as Les Bleus made the short trip across the border to face Belgium in the Nations League.
Captain Kylian Mbappe was absent due to a minor left knee injury, but fellow star Olise came off the bench to provide the decisive moment in the 88th minute.
The Bayern Munich man travelled from inside his own half before slotting a neat finish into the bottom-left corner from the edge of the area, taking him to 13 goal involvements in his last 14 appearances for France (four goals, nine assists).
Zidane said of Olise afterwards, as quoted by L’Equipe: “He’s a pure talent – I like this type of player. He wants to please people when he plays, but not only that.
“He feels football, he knows when to go and when to slow things down. I’m happy to be by his side, to see him play like this.”
13 – Michael Olise a été décisif 13 fois en 14 matches avec l’équipe de France en 2026:
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) September 28, 2026
But Zidane was also impressed by many of those players that came into his lineup.
Paris Saint-Germain’s Maghnes Akliouche created three chances and played a game-high 35 passes into the final third, while his club-made Desire Doue created four chances, attempted five shots and completed five dribbles.
It was just the fifth instance of a France player creating four or more chances, attempting five or more shots and completing at least five dribbles in a single game on record, after Nicolas Anelka (vs Faroe Islands in 2009), Franck Ribery (vs Belarus in 2012), and Mbappe twice (vs South Africa in 2022 and Azerbaijan in 2025).
Liverpool defender Jeremy Jacquet was another impressive performer at the back, completing 91.8% of his passes (67/73) and winning six of his nine duels.
“I’m very satisfied with what the team did, and not only with the ball. Like the match in Turkiye, but on a much better pitch, we were very good everywhere,” Zidane added.
“We put things in place against a good Belgium team who also made us suffer, but we held on, we were brave, we weren’t afraid to go into the opponents’ half.
“That’s what I like, that’s what we want. We may have dropped a little bit in the second half, when we had some small difficulties, but that’s logical.
“We made nine changes, but what I like about this team is that everyone feels involved.”
France are back in action on Friday, with Italy visiting the Stade de France, before they round out the international break with another home game against Turkiye next week.
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