France, Looking Like a World Cup Heavyweight, Beats Uruguay

France advanced to the semifinals of the World Cup for the second time since winning the title on home soil in 1998, clinically dispatching an undermanned Uruguay, 2-0, at Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

France willplay the winner of Friday’s second quarterfinal, Brazil vs. Belgium, on Tuesday in St. Petersburg.

Raphael Varane and Antoine Griezmann scored for France, the former on a header from a free kick and the latter on a goalkeeping blunder by Uruguay’s Fernando Muslera. 

The second goal, at the hour mark, came on an unremarkable shot by Griezmann that fooled Muslera, who let the ball hit him in the gloves but failed to stop it. Stunned, and perhaps fooled by the ball’s trajectory, he watched as it carried on behind him into the net.

France displayed a multi-faceted attack, which allowed it to overcome a stout Uruguayan defense that had only surrendered one goal in the tournament. 

 There weren’t the gaping holes that Kylian Mbappé so viciously exploited against Argentina in the Round of 16, so instead France worked a variety of angles: through balls to Mbappé, crosses to Olivier Giroud, free kicks towards their big center backs and whatever Griezmann wanted to try.

Uruguay couldn’t neutralize France because there is no single player or single strategy to neutralize. And it was weakened up front by the absence of striker Edinson Cavani, a crucial counterpart to Luis Suarez. Cavani missed the game because of a calf injury.

With only a single serious threat to worry about, France did so successfully, taking Suarez out of the match. Hugo Lloris only had to make one difficult save, a brilliant parry of a Martín Cáceres header before halftime. But in open play, France shut everything else down, and Uruguay didn’t manage a single shot on goal in the second half.

France got on the board in the 40th minute, when Griezmann took a free kick after a foul by Rodrigo Bentancur, who had taken down Corentin Tolisso from behind. Griezmann lofted the ball in, and Varane rocketed in a header.

Uruguay kept pace with France in the first half, not in passes, but in shots, and created its own great scoring opportunity minutes later. Lucas Torreira took a free kick and sent it toward Caceres, who fired a close-in header downward toward the left post. But Lloris dove to his right and made a beautiful one-handed save, pushing the ball wide.

 The ball dribbled loose for a moment and Uruguay’s Diego Godin arrived to try to convert the rebound, but he failed to bundle it in.

After that near miss, Uruguay struggled to create chances.

France went ahead by 2-0 in the 61st minute. Breaking as part of a four-on-four, Griezmann tried a shot from distance. It should have been be a relatively routine save for Muslera, but it seemed to knuckle in the air just before it hit his hands. Slowed but not stopped, the ball popped up, went over Muslera’s shoulder and dropped into the goal.

The game got ill-tempered soon afterward. After contact with Cristian Rodriguez of Uruguay, Mbappé went down, angering the Uruguayan defenders who believed he was faking an injury and setting off a fracas that soon involved players from both teams.

 Godin, suspecting play acting, grabbed Mbappé in an effort to make him get up. Players tangled, and there was shouting, pushing and shoving as the French players stood over Mbappé’s prone body. In the end there was a yellow card for both Rodriguez and Mbappé.

France then set about killing off the game, controlling possession and not letting Uruguay get much more than a sniff of the ball.

France will not face such an impotent offense in the semifinals, where either Neymar and Philippe Coutinho of Brazil or Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne of Belgium await. But Les Blues have no obvious holes to exploit, either, and there is no easy way to stifle their attack.