No goals. One shot on target. One assist. One World Cup winners’ medal. One killer line.
Olivier Giroud must have felt the 2018 World Cup was going to be his time to shine when, in France’s penultimate warm-up game, he powered home a header against Ireland in the heaving Paris rain.
Seven weeks on and drenched in a Muscovite downpour, Giroud was a World Cup winner.
If someone told you at the start of the tournament that Giroud would fail to score a goal, it would not be too shocking. If they then told you that Giroud would start six of seven games, feature in all of France’s matches and that he would end up a winner, that might have caused an eyebrow to be raised.
Back in 1998, Auxerre forward Stephan Guivarc’h featured in every game for France as they romped to their first ever World Cup win. 20 years on, Giroud repeated the dose.
It was not for the want of trying. Giroud had 15 efforts on goal. Only one hit the target. 10 were blazed over or dragged wide. Four were blocked. He did register an assist and was a good link man; holding up the ball and bringing teammates into the game.
The Chelsea striker was one of the last to leave the Luzhniki Stadium, just after Sunday midnight, and stopped for some of the British journalists waiting for soundbites and insights in the media mixed zone.
One of those reporters was Sam Wallace from The Telegraph. Recognising some familiar faces from the Premier League beat, Giroud could not resist a tongue-in-cheek remark about the ‘It;s Coming Home hype’ that had enveloped England.
Asked what it was like to be a World Cup winner, Giroud replied:
“Not bad, it’s a great feeling. I mean… ”
Giroud paused, smiled and added, “It’s coming home! I had to say that!”
There was a smattering of international journalists in the huddle and, along with some of the English reporters, there was some hearty laughter.
Asked about his World Cup drought, Giroud had a great response to that too.
“I have received a lot of messages from people who know football well, lots of French supporters,” he said.
“They saw the work I do for the team and a lot of people wanted me to score in the final. I said, ‘Yes I hope so but even if I don’t score and we are world champions it will be the best thing that has happened in my life’.”
