Overview

• Croatia defeated France 2-0 in Split with first-half goals from Ante Budimir and Ivan Perisic, taking advantage of defensive errors.
• France's tactical experiment with Ousmane Dembélé as a central playmaker failed, prompting adjustments at halftime.
• Mike Maignan saved an early penalty, preventing a larger deficit, but France struggled to recover from a poor first-half performance.
• The French team showed improvement in the second half but failed to score, leaving them needing a two-goal margin to force extra time or three goals to advance outright in Sunday's return leg.
• Didier Deschamps and players emphasized the need for a stronger performance, drawing parallels to past comebacks like their 2013 win over Ukraine.