Olise scores, Bastoni answers, and France draw Italy 1-1 in Zidane's home debut

France drew 1-1 with Italy in the Nations League at the Stade de France on Friday, 2 October. Michael Olise put the hosts ahead after the break. Alessandro Bastoni levelled in the 68th minute. Zinedine Zidane's first home match as France manager ended with his team down to 10 men in the closing minutes, and with the perfect start gone.

The start had been two away wins, 1-0 in Turkey and 1-0 in Belgium. Friday was the third game and the first in Saint-Denis. It was also against the side Zidane faced in his last match as a France player. The symmetry is a footnote. The score is the record: one win short of a third straight shutout, and a point shared in Group A1.

The minute the goal came, and the minute it went

Italy had the better of the first half without a goal. After the interval France finally put Gianluigi Donnarumma under repeated pressure. He pushed away Désiré Doué's shot from distance and got up in time to block Ousmane Dembélé's follow-up from close range. Moments later he dived to stop Olise's curling effort. The goal, when it came, was from a free-kick routine. Rayan Cherki touched the ball to Olise, who bent it in off the bar. Donnarumma had no save on that one.

France did not add a second. In the 68th minute they tried to play out from the back. Lucas Da Cunha failed to control the pass. Bastoni took the loose ball, drove at the defence and beat Mike Maignan. A lead that had looked like a repeat of the Turkey and Belgium scorelines became a draw in one misplaced touch. The sending-off that followed, leaving France with 10, closed the chance of a late winner. Reuters did not, in the first dispatch, name the player dismissed. The count is the fact that was confirmed: 11 against 11 for the equaliser, 10 men by the end.

What the draw does in the group

A home draw against Italy is not a crisis for a side that had taken six points from two away games. It is a stop. Zidane's first two matches produced one goal each and none conceded. Friday produced one goal, one conceded, and a man sent off. Italy, who had been opened up after the break, leave Saint-Denis with a point their goalkeeper had looked likely to lose.

Donnarumma's sequence is the clearest piece of play besides the two goals. Three stops, of Doué, Dembélé and Olise, then a goal from a set piece he could not reach, then a French error he did not have to face because Bastoni finished it himself. Cherki's touch and Olise's shot off the bar are the French chance that counted. Da Cunha's heavy control is the one that gave it back.

The Stade de France is the same ground where Zidane's playing career had its public peak in 1998 and its public end in 2006, both against different stakes. Friday was a Nations League group match, not a final. The crowd saw a manager who had won his first two games by the same score fail to manage the ball out of his own defensive third. That is a coaching detail, not a verdict. Da Cunha's miss-control is a player's error. The decision to keep building short, after Italy had already shown they could press the first pass, is the part that belongs to the bench.

The table, and the missing name

Nations League tables will move by a point, not by a narrative about a home debut. France remain unbeaten under Zidane. They are no longer unbeaten and unscored-against. Six points from two away wins, plus one from Friday, is seven from three matches if both Turkey and Belgium games were group fixtures, which the Reuters dispatch treated as the opening of his tenure. Italy take a point from the ground where they were second best for a quarter of an hour after the interval.

Two facts are still open. The dismissed player's name was not in the first wire. A red card in the closing minutes changes the next match only if it carries a suspension, and the competition's ban table depends on the offence. Until that name is published, the useful count is 10 men, not a suspension list. The other open item is whether France will keep the same rest-defence when they next have a lead. Friday's evidence is one match: 1-1, Olise off the bar, Bastoni through a failed control, and a goalkeeper who made three saves before the woodwork did the fourth job for him.