Kylian Mbappe came off the bench to score a late equaliser as France settled for a 1-1 draw with Austria in their Nations League encounter in Vienna on Friday.
Mbappe appeared as a second-half replacement for Antoine Griezmann at the Ernst-Happel Stadium and burst through in characteristic fashion to smash in the 83rd-minute leveller, cancelling out Andreas Weimann’s opener.
The result leaves France, who won last year’s edition of the Nations League, still without a win three games into the new campaign.
They are bottom of League A, Group 1 with two points after losing 2-1 at home to Denmark last weekend and then drawing 1-1 in Croatia on Monday.
The Danes remain top of the group despite losing 1-0 at home to Croatia in Copenhagen on Friday, with Mario Pasalic scoring the only goal of the game midway through the second half.
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The match in Vienna went ahead despite concern about a huge hole that opened up on the same pitch during Austria’s 2-1 loss to Denmark on Monday.
Playing their third game under new coach Ralf Rangnick, Austria took the lead eight minutes before half-time when Konrad Laimer’s low ball in from the right was converted by the Bristol City forward Weimann.
France coach Didier Deschamps sent on Mbappe for Griezmann in the 63rd minute and RB Leipzig’s Christopher Nkunku came on for Kingsley Coman 11 minutes from time as they stepped up their search for the leveller.
Mbappe had not played against Croatia after coming off with a knee knock at half-time against Denmark, and he was fresh enough to make the difference for the visitors.
A quick exchange of passes with Nkunku led to the Paris Saint-Germain star breaking through to fire past goalkeeper Patrick Pentz and score his 10th goal for his country this season.
Mbappe could then have won the game three minutes from the end, but this time his shot from close range was turned onto the crossbar by the goalkeeper.
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