Kylian Mbappe suffered a broken nose as France secured a 1-0 victory over Austria in their Euro 2024 opener at the Merkur Spielarena in Düsseldorf.

Seven minutes before halftime in Duesseldorf, Woeber deflected Mbappe’s cutback into his own net, allowing the French, who are among the top-ranked teams in the competition, to overcome a difficult test.

Under Ralf Rangnick, Austria has significantly improved, and they frequently caused problems for the 2022 World Cup runners-up, who saw Mbappe leave the pitch at the end after being injured in a collision.

He had earlier missed a fantastic opportunity to extend France’s lead, and sources close to the player confirmed he had suffered a broken nose in the unintentional collision with Kevin Danso.

“He is in a bad way. He is not well. His nose is a mess, that’s for sure. That is the black mark of the evening for us,” France coach Didier Deschamps said, without confirming the extent of the injury.

“We had the chance to put the game to bed and it is true that we could have been more precise in attack, but it’s very good to start with a victory,” Deschamps said of the result.

In spite of Mbappe’s injury, France will be happy with their victory following a build-up that was dominated more by political discourse than by football.

In recent days, Mbappe and other French players have devoted a significant portion of their time to answering questions from the media over the country’s impending elections, which might see the far-right National Rally emerge as the largest party.

Any mistake in this area would have suggested that they were not entirely focused on the competition.

As a result, France and the Netherlands, who overcame Poland 2-1 on Sunday, are now tied for third place in Group D.

Next up, France and the Netherlands play in Leipzig on Friday, while Austria plays Poland in Berlin on the same day.

“We are obviously disappointed with the result. No France player scored against us in 100 minutes, just a very unfortunate own goal,” said Rangnick.

“I think Didier Deschamps was really happy when the final whistle came which shows how well my team played.”

Austria had some great records going into the competition, and their squad is comfortable in these Euros—Rangnick is German, and eight members of their starting lineup competed in the German Bundesliga the previous year.

But under the leadership of Mbappe, their captain, the French are maybe the most gifted team in the competition.

His only other experience at the Euros was in 2021, where he had a dreadful time losing to Switzerland in a shootout after missing the game-winning penalty.

With his first significant opportunity coming up inside eight minutes of the game, the new Real Madrid addition will be perplexed as to why he did not score.

Mbappe was released by Antoine Griezmann and Theo Hernandez together. He cut in from the left and shaped to curl a shot into the far corner, but he ultimately went for the near post.

Patrick Pentz, the Austrian custodian, was able to make the save, though.

The Austrians got into the game and missed a fantastic opportunity to take the lead on the thirty-sixth minute.

Goalkeeper Mike Maignan stopped captain Marcel Sabitzer from scoring after he knocked down a left-wing cross from Michael Gregoritsch for Christoph Baumgartner.

Two minutes later, France took the lead, so that proved to be crucial.

After Ousmane Dembele sent the ball to Mbappe on the right, the unfortunate Woeber headed his cutback into the far corner of his own net. Mbappe then produced a stepover to get to the byline.

In first-half stoppage time, Pentz stopped Mbappe from going past the custodian, but that was nothing compared to the opportunity he missed ten minutes later.

Mbappe was sent off by Adrien Rabiot, who dashed in behind the Austrian defence, but with just the custodian to beat, he managed to misfire on his attempt.

With the game hanging in the balance, Austria persisted in trying, but in vain, to bring about a leveller.

Their supporters were not very thrilled with what they saw as Mbappe’s late timewasting, since he required medical attention following his collision with Danso in the box.

After leaving the pitch with blood on his jersey, he returned and sat down, receiving a yellow card before Olivier Giroud took his place.

Photo by EPA/Leszek Szymanski