France Needed 13 Minutes to Destroy Belgium And Olise Was Ridiculous
Belgium were winning. France looked frustrated. Then Zidane changed the game, and Michael Olise turned the final minutes into a highlight reel.
Football can change very quickly.
But even by football standards, what happened at the Stade de France was ridiculous.
Belgium were leading France 1–0 after Dodi Lukébakio's 35th-minute goal. For most of the evening, Belgium had something to protect and France had a problem to solve.
Then everything changed.
Désiré Doué equalised in the 77th minute.
Rayan Cherki put France ahead four minutes later.
And then Michael Olise decided he wasn't finished.
The Bayern Munich winger scored in the 88th minute and again in stoppage time.
France 4–1 Belgium.
Four goals in 13 minutes.
And somehow, Olise was involved in three of them.
Olise was on another level
Let's talk about that second-half cameo.
Olise came off the bench alongside Cherki and Doué, and suddenly France looked like a completely different attacking team.
He provided the cross for Cherki's equaliser, then scored twice himself.
The first was a composed finish after combining with Doué.
The second came just three minutes later, with Olise finishing from the left side of the box.
That's not just a good substitute appearance.
That's a player coming onto the pitch and changing the entire story of the match.
And perhaps that's what makes France so frightening right now.
Zidane has ridiculous options
Zinedine Zidane didn't need to completely rebuild his team.
He simply looked towards his bench.
Olise.
Cherki.
Doué.
Three players who hadn't started the match.
They combined to turn a 1–0 deficit into a 4–1 victory.
That's incredible squad depth.
And it creates a very different problem for opponents.
You might survive France's starting XI.
But what happens when Zidane looks towards the bench?
Belgium couldn't survive the final 13 minutes
To be fair, Belgium didn't have a terrible match for 77 minutes.
They led.
They defended their advantage.
They had restricted France for long periods.
But once Doué equalised, the momentum completely disappeared.
France suddenly had space.
The confidence returned.
And Belgium couldn't stop the avalanche.
The final statistics tell the story: France finished with 66.5% possession, 23 shots and eight on target, compared with Belgium's five shots and two on target.
So perhaps the 4–1 scoreline actually understates how much pressure France eventually created.
But Olise is the bigger story for me
There is something fascinating about Michael Olise right now.
He isn't simply becoming a useful player for France.
He is becoming the kind of player who can change a match by himself.
We already saw it when France beat Belgium 1–0 in Brussels.
Olise came off the bench and scored an extraordinary solo winner in the 88th minute.
Now, less than two weeks later, he has produced another match-winning performance against the same opponent this time with two goals and an assist.
That's becoming a pattern.
And France are going to love it.
The scary part? Mbappé wasn't even needed tonight
France have Kylian Mbappé.
Everyone knows what he can do.
But tonight, France didn't need him to rescue the game.
They had Olise.
They had Cherki.
They had Doué.
That's the thing that stands out.
This isn't a team dependent on one superstar to produce something magical every time the match becomes difficult.
There are solutions everywhere.
And Zidane gets credit
This was also a coaching victory.
The substitutions worked.
Not eventually.
Almost immediately.
Doué scored.
Olise assisted Cherki.
Olise scored twice.
That's exactly what you want from your substitutes.
Zidane's France are now top of Group A1 with 10 points after four matches, with Italy three points behind.
It's still early in Zidane's tenure, so we shouldn't start predicting trophies already.
But there is clearly something developing.
What I like about this France team isn't simply the scoreline.
It's the number of different ways they can hurt you.
You can defend Mbappé.
Then Olise appears.
You can try to control Olise.
Then Cherki creates something.
You can survive Cherki.
Then Doué attacks you.
And when three substitutes can enter a match and completely change it in 13 minutes, you start to understand why France remain one of the most frightening squads in international football.
Belgium had the lead.
France had the answers.
And Michael Olise had the final word.
Four goals in 13 minutes.
Two goals for Olise.
One assist.
And a reminder that France's biggest strength might not even be their starting XI.
It might be what they have waiting on the bench.
Do you think Olise is becoming one of France's most important players, or is this simply another example of how ridiculously deep this French squad is?