France 2-1 Germany: 5 Talking Points

Modified Oct 17, 2018 07:18 GMT

Griezmann celebrates after scoring from the spot

#4 Controversial penalty decisions

Kroos celebrates with Kimmich after scoring from the spot

Paul Pogba had the ball stolen from him by Joshua Kimmich and in the subsequent move, Leroy Sane turned on his afterburners and dragged Kimpembe to the edge of the area before attempting to drag the ball back to his teammates.

Kimpembe put in a brave challenge and stopped the ball. However, replays showed that the ball struck his arm. Kimpembe was just a yard away from Leroy Sane as the ball struck his arm and there was no way he could have got his hand out of the way in such a short window of time. The French centre-back has every right to feel hard done by that decision.

In the second half, Mbappe released Blaise Matuidi into the area and though Hummels put in an ill-timed tackle, he did not exactly hack Matuidi to the ground. Matuidi ended up stepping on Hummels' outstretched leg and lost his balance.

Though both weren't top-notch decisions, at least they evened it out.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad