On October 10, 2021, world champions France defeated Spain 2-1 in the final of the UEFA Nations League to win the second edition of the tournament. They did it in style, as a number of key players notched up important milestones.
The Nations League final against Spain was Antoine Griezmann’s 100th cap with the French national team. In terms of total French caps eamed so far. Griezmann now comes ninth, only behind Lilian Thuram, Hugo Lloris, Thierry Henry, Marcel Desailly, Olivier Giroud, Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira and current coach Didier Deschamps.
In the Nations League semi-final against Belgium, Kylian Mbappe became the youngest player ever to reach 50 international caps with France. Mbappe reached the milestone at the age of 22 years and 291 days, almost two years younger than the previous record holder. Karim Benzema, who also scored in the Nations League final against Spain alongside Mbappe, had held the record previously, having reached 50 caps at the age of 24 years and 240 days.
With their victory against Spain, France became the second winner of the UEFA Nations League. The inaugural edition from 2018-19 was won by Portugal.
Including the four matches (two semi-finals, one third place play-off and one final) in the Nations League Final Four stage, a total of 164 matches were played in the 2020-21 edition of the competition. In these 164 matches, 376 goals were scored, accounting on average for a goal every 40 minutes and 2.3 goals per game.
Picture Credit : Google
