France seals third place over Nations League host
Kylian Mbappe and Michael Olise were on target as France defeated Germany 2-0 in Stuttgart to seal third place in the 2024-2025 UEFA Nations League.
Having lost 5-4 in a thriller to Spain in the semi-finals, Les Bleus clinically defeated the hosts to consign Julian Nagelmann's side, which was beaten by Portugal in its semi-final, to fourth.
Mike Maignan kept Niklas Fullkrug and Karim Adeyemi at bay as Germany made a fast start. The latter was then awarded a penalty before the decision was overturned, and the forward was booked for diving over the France goalkeeper.
Mbappe slipped when presented with a glorious chance prior to opening the scoring on the start of half-time.
He took an excellent first touch from Aurelien Tchouameni's long pass into the box, cut inside Joshua Kimmich and bent past Marc-Andre ter Stegen into the top-right corner.
The Real Madrid ace slammed one into the side-netting shortly after the restart prior to Deniz Undav seeing a low drive ruled out when referee Ivan Kruzliak judged Fullkrug had fouled Adrien Rabiot in the build-up after a trip to the pitch-side monitor.
Marcus Thuram curled an effort on to the right-hand post and was denied again by a strong save from Ter Stegen, who also brilliantly denied Mbappe's acrobatic edge-of-the-box strike and then kept out the Madrid forward when one-on-one.
But there was nothing Ter Stegen could do to prevent Mbappe laying one on a plate for Olise to tap in the insurance goal with six minutes to go after an electric break.

