A true leader - even without the armband
Paul Pogba gave an impassioned dressing room team talk at half-time of France's Nations League final match against Spain.
The Manchester United midfielder played an influential role as Didier Deschamps' side secured a 2-1 victory against the Spaniards on Sunday night.
Mikel Oyarzabal opened the scoring for Spain in the 64th minute, but France were level just two minutes later thanks to a wondergoal from Karim Benzema.
The reigning World Champions took the lead ten minutes from full-time after Kylian Mbappe's strike beat Unai Simon in the Spain goal.
Pogba - who was operating in the centre of midfield alongside highly rated Aurelien Tchouameni - continued his impressive club form as he registered more touches (78) and tackles (3) than any other France player, whilst also making 42 accurate passes.
Despite not wearing the captain's armband, the 28-year-old delivered a passionate speech to his teammates during the interval when the game was still tied 0-0.
According to @aaroncikaya, Pogba's speech translates to:
"We have to be aggressive. It starts from the front all the way to the back. We win the ball back and we attack. And yes we're going to run a lot because they have quality players, but so do we.
"We have to keep the ball and hurt them. Second half we have to be aggressive."
https://twitter.com/UtdDistrict/status/1447901993809457153
This isn't the first time that the Frenchman has demonstrated his ability to motivate his teammates, however, with the midfielder also giving an inspirational talk during the 2018 World Cup.
Prior to France's World Cup final tie against Argentina in 2018, Pogba showed how much of a leader he is and also how respected he is amongst his fellow professionals.
https://twitter.com/EPLStuff/status/1020262555355410433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1020262555355410433%7Ctwgr%5Ehb_2_7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportbible.com%2Ffootball%2Fnews-take-a-bow-reactions-dressing-room-footage-shows-leader-paul-pogba-giving-rousing-speech-20211012
There was also some rousing words from Raphael Varane ahead of the match:
https://twitter.com/UtdFaithfuls/status/1447822501174710275
With Deschamps' men having triumphed in the Nations League, they will next be in action during the November international break when they host Kazakhstan and travel to Finland.
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