NIZHNY NOVGOROD – It was just 20 days before France’s comprehensive quarterfinal victory over Uruguay that Les Bleus took to the field to begin their 2018 World Cup campaign against Australia.
Ninety largely forgettable minutes followed, unless you count the VAR incidents, and France scraped home 2-1 against a rank outsider.
France’s goals came via the penalty spot and an Aziz Behich own goal.
Insipid and uninspiring, those analysts who had pointed to France as potential world champion before a ball had been kicked were probably keeping quiet that day.
An uninspiring 1-0 win against Peru followed and then came the convenient 0-0 draw with Denmark.
France had been “boring” in qualifying for the knockout stage, critics said.
They were quickly moving from a team tipped as genuine title winners to also-rans.
How that has changed in less than a week. Following a thrilling 4-3 win over Argentina in probably the match of the tournament, which introduced the rest of the world to wunderkind Kylian Mbappe, through to their comprehensive dismantling of street-tough Uruguay on Friday, France is now into a semifinal against Belgium.
The big question is, can France go all the way?
It was a question Didier Deschamps was asked after the Uruguay win.
“All I can say at the moment is that we have the potential to be in the semifinals,” said Deschamps, coyly.