Antoine Griezmann never wore blue and white, but for a decade, his feet dictated the geometry of Argentina’s penalty box. Every time France won a corner, the fear had a familiar shape – socks low, shoulders loose, eyes moving, defenders tugging at shirts while he waited for the smallest crack in their spacing.
Now that picture has gone, but the danger has not disappeared. France has traded one expert conductor for a looser, harder-to-read set of threats.
When Griezmann walked away from international football in September 2024 with 137 caps and 44 goals, France lost the player who gave their set pieces rhythm and disguise. He did not just cross the ball; he managed the tension before it ever arrived.
For Lionel Scaloni, that absence offers no clean relief. France no longer has one obvious conductor. Instead, Argentina must prepare for Ousmane Dembélé’s speed of delivery, Michael Olise’s left-footed curl, Théo Hernandez’s driven ball, Bradley Barcola’s direct running, and the growing influence of younger wildcards such as Désiré Doué and Rayan Cherki. Doué has already crashed Deschamps’ senior squad, while Cherki’s rapid development forces Argentina’s video room to keep a close eye on his improvisational flair.
Argentina’s scouts can no longer study just one maestro; they must dissect half a dozen different delivery styles.
The old danger had a shape
Griezmann gave France a language on dead balls. His value did not live only in assists or highlight clips. Timing made him dangerous.
Griezmann knew exactly when to float a corner toward the penalty spot or whip it near post, but his true genius lay in manipulating defenders before he even struck the ball. A slight delay could pull one marker toward the six-yard box. One glance toward the back post could freeze another. Against teams already worried about Kylian Mbappé, even a short pause carried weight.
Argentina understood that tension because France forced it to understand.
In the unforgettable 3-3 draw of the 2022 World Cup final, Argentina spent most of the night in control before the match cracked open. Lionel Messi scored. Ángel Di María shredded France’s right side. Alexis Mac Allister carried the ball with clean, ruthless simplicity. Then Mbappé turned the final into something wilder, scoring twice in barely two minutes and later completing a hat trick before Argentina won on penalties.
Griezmann did not even finish the match. Didier Deschamps pulled him in the 71st minute to chase the game. Even when Argentina controlled the scoreboard, Griezmann kept them on edge. He forced Scaloni’s men to worry about defensive structure. France made them think about rest defense. Second balls stayed alive as a threat even when Les Bleus looked short of ideas.
Instead of one maestro now, Argentina’s defense stares down a rotating cast of specialists, each with a different dominant foot, delivery speed, and angle.
The new French problem
Olise gives France the cleanest post-Griezmann set-piece profile. His left foot brings shape, control, and late dip. From the right side, he can swing the ball toward goal while bending it away from a defender’s forehead. His deliveries dip viciously at the last second. That late drop forces center backs into the awkward nightmare of backpedaling and jumping simultaneously.
Dembélé creates a different problem. His two-footedness complicates every defensive cue. A right-sided corner does not automatically reveal whether the ball will swing in or out. Free kicks from the left channel do not guarantee the same body shape twice. Argentina’s blockers and zonal markers cannot settle into one visual trigger.
Théo brings blunt force. His best restarts do not need hang time. Driven with his laces, a low free kick from his side can skid through legs or nick a shin. Those deflections create exactly the kind of chaotic loose ball Mbappé feeds on before defenders can even turn their hips.
While Olise, Dembélé, and Théo deliver the danger, Barcola helps create the platforms. He does not take the kicks, and official Ligue 1 data from the 2025-26 campaign sample does not paint him as PSG’s biggest foul magnet. Still, his direct running creates chaos. When he attacks the outside shoulder, defenders make hurried choices near the edge of the box.
Official league data credits Barcola with 11 fouls suffered in that sample. Doué, though, has been the sharper foul-winning threat for PSG, drawing 28 fouls, roughly 1.56 per match. That nuance matters. Barcola stretches the flank and forces defenders backward; Doué wins the contact that can hand France a dead-ball platform.
Doué and Cherki widen the scouting problem. They are not Griezmann replacements in any tidy sense. Both are younger, freer, and less predictable. Doué has already entered the senior France picture, while Cherki remains the pipeline wildcard whose U21 dominance and club-level creativity demand attention. Deschamps does not need either to start for them to matter. One late substitution can change the delivery profile of a match.
With Deschamps constantly shuffling his attacking deck, adaptability is not a buzzword for Scaloni. It is a survival requirement.
The defensive spine has to stay calm
Romero must make aggression precise
Cristian Romero gives Argentina the bite every great defensive team needs. He attacks aerial balls with spite. That edge matters against France because size and timing still sit at the heart of the threat.
But set pieces punish defenders who turn aggression into panic.
Olivier Giroud backing into center backs is a problem of the past. Randal Kolo Muani cutting across the blind side or Marcus Thuram hunting a loose bounce presents a different physical test. Kolo Muani can arrive across the front shoulder. Thuram can occupy space with power and reach. Mbappé can lurk outside the crush, waiting for the ball that squirts free.
Romero cannot solve that by wrestling harder. He has to win with timing.
A flat-whipped Dembélé delivery, like the kind he often hits early from wide PSG positions, may arrive before Romero establishes body position. An Olise cross may force him to backpedal while tracking a runner. A Théo restart may create contact after the first clearance, when defenders often switch off for half a second.
Romero’s best version keeps the intimidation and removes the extra flourish. Attack the first ball. Keep the arms down. Clear toward a teammate, not into the next wave of French pressure.
Otamendi must defend the next ball
Nicolás Otamendi carries Argentina’s scar tissue. He has lived through the worst years and the best ones. That history gives him authority, but France can turn authority into vulnerability if he defends old memories instead of the next action.
Lusail taught Otamendi a brutal, obvious lesson. His foul on Kolo Muani gave Mbappé the penalty that dragged France back into the final. One poor body angle opened the door. A desperate reach changed the whole temperature of the night.
A similar test waits on restarts. France will try to put Otamendi in motion. Kolo Muani can flash across him. Thuram can lean into him. William Saliba or Dayot Upamecano can attack from deeper zones. Mbappé can hover beyond the first duel, ready for the knockdown.
Otamendi does not need to erase the memory. He needs to use it. His first job is finding the right body angle, followed closely by restraint and a split-second reaction when the ball drops.
That sequencing sounds simple in film study, but executing it while tracking Thuram in a crowded penalty area is entirely different.
Martínez controls the six-yard box before the cross
Emiliano Martínez changes set pieces before he touches the ball. He points; he talks; he drags defenders into place with the restless authority elite goalkeepers need.
Against France, his first step matters as much as his hands.
Olise’s deliveries can tempt a goalkeeper forward, then drop behind him. Dembélé’s flatter balls can demand a punch through traffic. Théo’s lower strikes can create the ugliest kind of goalmouth scramble – one deflection, one blocked clearance, one striker swinging from four yards.
Martínez cannot claim everything. No goalkeeper can. Still, he can set the line early and remove confusion from the six-yard box. If he comes, he has to come through bodies. Should he stay, his defenders must know the first header belongs to them.
France will search for doubt. Martínez’s job is to kill it early.
The midfield screen decides the second ball
Most viewers watch the first collision. Coaches watch what happens after it.
That is where Mac Allister becomes vital. He can hover near Zone 14, just above the 18-yard box, and sweep up the scraps that turn set pieces into second attacks. His value comes from anticipation rather than drama. He reads the bounce early. He closes the shooting lane. Then he turns danger into the first pass out.
That skill matters against France because Mbappé does some of his most destructive work after a defense thinks it has survived. He does not need a perfect routine. A loose clearance and one defender facing the wrong way can be enough. The 2022 final captured that ruthlessness in open play and from the spot, but the broader lesson applies to restarts. France can change the match through one broken sequence.
Rodrigo De Paul must help Mac Allister in that zone. As Argentina’s midfield engine, his immediate reaction to defensive corners dictates whether France reloads or retreats. If De Paul closes the crosser quickly after the first clearance, Argentina can breathe. When he arrives late, France gets another ball into the box before the back line resets.
Enzo Fernández has a quieter job. He has to guard the lane above the box. France will try to drag him wide with short routines and recycled possession. If he leaves the central space too early, Olise or Cherki can receive facing goal.
Argentina cannot defend only the delivery. It has to defend the aftermath.
Messi still changes France’s risk calculation
Set pieces, however, work both ways. Argentina’s own dead-ball threat starts with Messi, and that changes how France attacks corners.
Even now, Messi standing near a corner flag alters the mood of a match. He can curl a delivery into the goalkeeper’s ribs. He can disguise a short pass. From the far-post angle, he can bend a ball with the kind of pace that turns one bad step into a goal.
Look at the 2024 Copa América group stage against Chile. Argentina ground out a 1-0 win because Lautaro Martínez reacted fastest to a loose ball pinballing around the six-yard box after a Messi corner. That goal arrived in the 88th minute and secured Argentina’s quarterfinal place.
That scramble proved a vital point that Argentina does not just weather the storm on set pieces. It uses them to strike back.
If France sends too many bodies forward, Argentina can clear into open grass. Messi can find the first outlet. Lautaro can pin a center back. Julián Álvarez can chase the second pass and force a hurried clearance into the stands. If France keeps extra protection behind the ball, its own set-piece threat loses numbers in the box.
Griezmann used to balance that equation better than anyone in blue. He knew when France needed bodies forward and when it needed protection against the break. Without him, that judgment spreads across several players.
Argentina can ruthlessly exploit this uncertainty.
The counter can punish French ambition
Di María’s goal in the 2022 final remains the model. Argentina did not break with wildness. It broke with precision. Messi started the move. Mac Allister carried the pass at the right speed. Di María finished from the left, exposing the space France had left behind.
That goal still matters because every French corner carries the same hidden danger.
Every corner invites France to attack the box, but simultaneously offers Argentina open grass for the counter. Théo cannot always crash forward if Argentina keeps a runner behind him. Dembélé cannot stand over a routine without thinking about the space he leaves if the delivery misses. Olise cannot focus only on curl and dip if De Paul waits to spring the first pass.
Lautaro’s movement becomes central here. He acts as a vital release valve, capable of holding off a center back, drawing a foul, or turning a desperate boot upfield into an immediate counter-attack. Álvarez offers a more frantic version of that pressure. He can chase a bad touch and make France’s rest defense feel less secure.
Scaloni does not need Argentina to counter after every set piece. He needs France to believe it might happen. That doubt can pull one defender out of the box. Sometimes one missing body changes the whole routine.
Scaloni has to update the map
Scaloni built Argentina to suffer without losing its shape. That remains his greatest tactical achievement.
His system relies on a delicate alchemy – Messi’s genius, Martínez’s sheer presence, Romero’s brute force, De Paul’s relentless engine, Mac Allister’s calm, and Enzo’s structure. Against a Griezmann-less France, all of those traits need adjustment.
Scaloni’s updated blueprint requires absolute discipline on the flanks, constant communication before the delivery, and the ambition to counter-attack rather than simply survive. Argentina cannot afford clumsy tackles on Dembélé, Barcola, or Doué outside the 18-yard box. France’s new set-piece group may lack Griezmann’s old authority, but its raw pace and technical variety remain lethal. Scaloni cannot gift extra chances to a team armed with flat-whipped deliveries and late-dipping curves.
Communication matters just as much. Argentina’s defenders must know the taker, the angle, and the likely second phase before the ball comes in. A Dembélé delivery should trigger different body shapes than an Olise delivery. Théo’s free kicks should change Martínez’s expectation. Short routines involving Cherki should trigger an aggressive midfield press. That reaction allows Otamendi and Romero to stay anchored in the six-yard box.
Ambition completes the plan. Argentina cannot spend the match treating every France restart like a siege. It has to believe in the counter. Scaloni must trust Messi’s first pass, Lautaro’s duel, Álvarez’s pressure, and Mac Allister’s calm touch under contact.
That balance will decide whether France’s variety becomes a weapon or a burden.
What changes when the conductor leaves
Griezmann’s retirement does not remove France’s set-piece danger. It removes the old pattern. That distinction should shape Argentina’s entire approach.
The next Argentina-France match will begin with small checks. Romero will find the biggest runner. Otamendi will scan for Kolo Muani or Thuram. Martínez will set his line. Mac Allister will drift toward the top of the box. De Paul will look for the short option. Messi will wait near halfway for the first touch that can turn pressure into release.
Mbappé will wait too.
Argentina cannot ignore that part. France still has the one player who can turn a poor clearance into a devastating, match-ending blow. It still has pace, size, and enough delivery options to make every dead ball feel different from the last one.
So the challenge is not sentimental life after Griezmann. The challenge is practical and immediate. Argentina must defend less against a memory and more against a menu of threats.
The old conductor has left. The music may get messier now, and messy can be harder to read.
READ MORE: The Set Pieces Masterclass We Expect From Kane Against Argentina
FAQS
Why does Griezmann’s retirement matter for Argentina?
Griezmann gave France control and disguise on set pieces. Without him, Argentina faces less certainty but more variety.
Who could take France’s set pieces after Griezmann?
Michael Olise, Ousmane Dembélé, and Théo Hernandez all offer different delivery styles. Doué and Cherki add younger, less predictable options.
How can Argentina defend France’s new dead-ball threat?
Argentina must stay disciplined, communicate early, and control second balls. Romero, Otamendi, Martínez, Mac Allister, and De Paul all matter.
Why does Messi still change the set-piece battle?
Messi gives Argentina its own dead-ball danger. France cannot attack every corner recklessly when Argentina can counter into open grass.
What is Argentina’s biggest risk against France set pieces?
Cheap fouls near the box are the biggest risk. They give France extra chances to turn pace and chaos into goals.
