It sure is fun to watch N’Golo Kante at his best, isn’t it?The last few seasons haven’t been easy for the French midfielder. Maurizio Sarri tinkered with his position at Chelsea and he’s been injured a lot recently, too.But it’s still hard to put any other defensive midfielder in the world ahead of Kante.His performance for France in their 1-0 win against Portugal on Saturday evening was sublime.He ran, he tackled, he intercepted, he passed. It was the sort of display that helped elevate Kante to world-class status a few years ago.
The 29-year-old also got on the scoresheet with just his second goal for his country.Kante tapped the ball home in the second half after Portugal ‘keeper Rui Patricio parried Adrien Rabiot’s shot.
Kante the match-winner. You don’t hear that very often.
His stats from the match, provided by Squawka, show just how good he was.
The likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, Paul Pogba and Antoine Griezmann were the ones being talked about before the game.
But by full-time, it was Kante who was trending on social media.
Kante's stunning match highlights
We could continue to wax lyrical about him, but we’ll let his individual highlights do the talking for now.
That’s a man of the match display right there.
It was very difficult for Portugal’s attack to get anything going and Kante was a large reason for that, making five tackles and recording four interceptions.
France's victory booked their place in the finals of the UEFA Nations League, which will be played next year.
Didier Deschamps’ starting line-up at the Estadio da Luz included a host of world-class names, and France will be the team to beat next year.
As well as the Nations League, they will attempt to win the European Championship to go with the World Cup they won two years ago.