Overview

• Croatia secured a 2-0 victory in Split with goals from Ante Budimir and Ivan Perisic, both capitalizing on French defensive errors.
• Mike Maignan saved an early penalty from Andrej Kramaric, preventing an even larger deficit for France.
• France's first-half performance was marred by poor cohesion, defensive lapses, and technical mistakes, as acknowledged by Didier Deschamps.
• A second-half improvement saw France create chances, but they failed to convert, leaving their attack scoreless despite the return of Kylian Mbappé.
• France must overturn the two-goal deficit at home on March 23, drawing on past comebacks like their 2013 turnaround against Ukraine.