A brace from Désiré Doué and a goal from Marcus Thuram gave France a 1-3 victory over Colombia this Sunday. This double round of friendly matches has left the Colombian side concerned about their poor performance with just over two months to go before the 2026 World Cup. At Northwest Stadium in Maryland, near Washington, the European side claimed victory against an opponent that improved in the second half and managed to pull one back with a goal from winger Jaminton Campaz, which was not enough to counter the Europeans' superiority, who played with their second-string team. The match started very evenly. The 'cafeteros' tried to attack down the left with the duo of Johan Mojica and Luis Diaz, while the French looked for Doué on one side and Maghnes Akliouche on the other. Colombia came close with shots from creative player James Rodriguez and Diaz, but they posed no major threat to the Europeans' goal. With few chances in the penalty areas, the French stepped on the accelerator and opened the scoring in the 29th minute with a play in which Doué received the ball on the edge of the area and unleashed a shot that deflected off defender Daniel Muñoz and went into the back of Álvaro Montero's net. The Colombians were left stunned by the opposing goal and the Europeans took advantage of this, extending their lead in the 41st minute with a great move in which full-back Pierre Kalulu surged forward and linked up with Akliouche, who sent a cross for Thuram to head home and celebrate the 0-2. The only clear chance for the South Americans came after the opposing goal, in a rocky move in which James set up Muñoz with a backheel, who with a delicate touch deflected the ball and almost sent it into the net. The 0-3 came in the 55th minute when central defender Juan David Cabal made a poor clearance, Warren Zaire-Emery recovered the ball and passed it to Thuram, who set up Doué to win the one-on-one against Montero. Colombia's coach, Néstor Lorenzo, took James, Diaz, and Mojica off the pitch and brought on Campaz, Juan Fernando Quintero, and Déiver Machado, who changed the face of their team. Their entry led to the 1-3 goal in the 77th minute with a play started by Quintero and, after a rebound, Jefferson Lerma received and set up Campaz, who took an unstoppable cross-shot for Samba to save. After that play, the South Americans continued to attack and even Quintero almost scored an own goal in the 83rd minute, but in the end that didn't happen and Colombia lost to a French national team that ended the match with stars like Michael Olise and Kylian Mbappé, who even had a goal ruled out for offside in the final play.
