For all their firepower, the reigning world champions struggled to break down the opposition defense and failed to find a killer second goal.
France made a stumbling start to their World Cup title defense as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Ukraine on Wednesday.
A wonderful Antoine Griezmann goal gave France the lead, with the FC Barcelona forward curling in an inch-perfect shot from outside the box in the 19th minute.
Les Blues then became the source of their own agony as Presnel Kimpembe deflected Serhiy Sydorchuk’s tame shot, which appeared to be going wide of the right-hand post, into his own net.
The hosts took 18 attempts but, despite the presence of likes of Kylian Mbappe, Olivier Giroud, Kingsley Coman, Paul Pogba, and Ousmane Dembele, were unable to kill the game.
Speaking post-match, Griezmann questioned the tactics as his side stumbled in the opening game of their World Cup qualifying campaign.
“We needed maybe more offensive players who are able to go one-v-one on the sidelines,” he told TF1.
“We will learn to play in a system like that and try to start winning again. We wanted to win but we didn’t play a great game. We’re going to look at it all and try to improve.”
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