Soccer: World Cup-Croatia vs France
Tim Groothuis

France currently sit top of 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification Group D in the UEFA zone with four points from two matches to lead the likes of Finland, Ukraine and Wednesday's opponents Bosnia-Herzegovina.

However, it is somewhat surprising to see the world champions only on four points considering that Ukraine at home, Kazakhstan and Bosnia-Herzegovina away was about as favorable an opening run of fixtures as possible.

The French started off on the wrong foot at Stade de France last Wednesday with a 1-1 draw against Andriy Shevchenko's organized Ukrainian outfit with a Presnel Kimpembe own goal cancelling out a wonderful -- albeit controversial -- Antoine Griezmann opener as Kylian Mbappe misfired.

"I will have a quiet chat with him about it," said head coach Didier Deschamps post-match. "He knows he did not have a good game. He was not feeling his best and he could not really settle into the match. The opponent adapted; there were two or three players on him all the time. Ukraine's set-up made it difficult for him to influence the game.

"Given the quality Kylian possesses, I understand that the opponent takes these measures. We need to be able to find him in space, and sometimes get two or three of our lads around him. There are also choices that he must make himself: lean on others, and perhaps find more of a balance between dribbling and passing."

It is not France's results or Mbappe that are starting to cause concern ahead of this summer's rearranged 2020 UEFA European Championship, though: it is their performances and that tie contrasts greatly with the 7-1 friendly win over the same nation as recently as last October.

Although Les Bleus topped League A group 3 of UEFA's Nations League at the end of last year after a 1-0 win away at Euro group stage opponents Portugal in November, it has felt like the French have been in third gear at best for large swathes of the three years since the World Cup success of 2018 in Russia.

Deschamps remains loyal to many of his faithful servants despite form or playing time issues and while that may be admirable, it also stifles emerging talents with Olympique Lyonnais' Houssem Aouar and Stade Rennais' Eduardo Camavinga made available for the under-21 Euros instead of senior WC qualifiers.

The OL man has since withdrawn and it is only the SRFC wonderkid, who scored his first goal in the aforementioned 7-1 thrashing of Ukraine, but with those sorts of decisions make it little wonder that France seem to be crawling at senior level at present.

This summer will see Deschamps' men go up against the likes of Germany, Portugal and Hungary in Group F at the Euros and instead of entering the tournament as hot favorites to add another trophy to their collection as part of their developing soccer dynasty, it feels like they are in danger of underwhelming.

Of course, with the likes of Paris Saint-Germain's Mbappe, Barcelona's Griezmann, Manchester United's Paul Pogba and Real Madrid's Raphael Varane, they will always have the quality to beat any opponent on their day -- the issue is how irregularly those days arrive.

Nations League wins over the Netherlands, Germany and WC 2018 victims Croatia were arguably the biggest results since their success over the Croats at Luzhniki but all three of those nations appear to be in decline since the last World Cup and France are also suffering.

Against both Ukraine and Kazakhstan, the French lacked drive, purpose and a desire to press home their superiority and they paid the price for that at home to the former by conceding a goal without their visitors actually having a shot on target over the 90 minutes in a lackluster display.

In Kazakhstan, an Ousmane Dembele opener was followed up with an own goal and Mbappe failed to convert a second half penalty which would have made the final score more convincing than the collective showing.

"The French team is performing well and will continue to do so," argued Deschamps. "There were no big scores in other matches on Saturday either. It is not easy for anyone. You have an opponent and the packed schedule of matches plus everything leading up to that. These are not excuses. I told the players at the talk to do the job, to win. It was bare minimum, but we won.

"There were nine new players compared to the match against Ukraine, but they already had experience. I am not going to take credit away from them for doing well. Qualifying is always difficult; the main thing is to reach the goal. The whole squad responded in a difficult match against an opponent who showed a lot of drive and motivation.

"If I have one regret, it is our lack of cutting edge as we looked to increase the score line towards the end. But these three points have the same value as those taken against other teams. We will appreciate it because everything is happening very quickly."

With Deschamps unlikely to change his current squad too much before this summer's Euros, Bosnia this midweek is one of the last chances for him to coax a performance from his players before they begin the tournament as a squad and the early evidence is that this group has a long way to go to realize its potential.