With the eyes of the world on him and nearly every big club after him, Paul Pogba took the field today in the opening game of Euro 2016.
The stage couldn’t be bigger for Pogba as the latest edition of the Euros fall on his home turf. With the hopes of an entire nation on his back, it’s up to the former Manchester United man to deliver. The first opponent in his way was a defensively compact Romanian side. While many aren’t familiar with them, Romania went the entire qualifying campaign unbeaten (5 wins, 5 draws) and are particularly impressive at the back. As a result, it was always going to be difficult for France to break them down, especially with the pressure on their shoulders going into this game.
After exchanging some good chances, France would emerge victorious as goals from Olivier Giroud and Dimitri Payet meant Bogdan Stancu’s penalty wasn’t enough. Paul Pogba, on the other hand, had flashes of brilliance throughout the game and eventually came off for Anthony Martial in the 77th minute. Now let’s take a deeper look at the Frenchman’s performance.
Paul Pogba v Romania: By the numbers –
Pass completion rate: 83.3%
Touches: 75.
Shots: 2.
Completed dribbles: 1.
Key Passes: 0.
Completed passes: 60. (7 completed through balls out of 9)
Tournament openers are typically cagey affairs but this wasn’t the case for Pogba. The Juventus man came out and dominated proceedings early on. After just fifteen minutes, the French international played through an onrushing Bacary Sagna down the right hand side in acres of space. The pass highlighted Il Polpo’s impressive vision and was just a taste of what was to come. In the following minutes, Pogba was spraying the ball around with ease and barely put a foot wrong. However, on many occasions his progress in the final third was stifled by a compact Romanian defense.
In the second half, France came out on the front foot looking for the go-ahead goal and nearly got it through Pogba. After Dimitri Payet made his way into the box with a fantastic run, the West Ham man picked out Pogba perfectly. The Juventus man struck a volley cleanly but saw his effort saved nicely by Tatarusanu. Following this shot, Pogba’s influence on the game diminished as the game wore on and he was eventually subbed off for Martial. The decision to take off the Juventus man was a questionable one as Pogba didn’t look one bit tired.
All in all, Pogba had a decent game and showed exactly why he is so highly rated across the footballing world. However, by his ridiculous standards, this wasn’t his best game and there’s significant margins for improvement. When judging a midfielder’s individual performance it’s important to note that it’s simply impossible for one to dominate a game for the entire ninety minutes. By looking at it from this perspective, Pogba was solid but weirdly enough, unspectacular.
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