France 4-1 Belgium: Europe’s press in awe of Michael Olise’s double

Dodi Lukebakio had opened the scoring in the first half and Belgium were still ahead with a quarter of an hour left. Fourteen minutes changed everything: Désiré Doué equalised in the 77th minute, Rayan Cherki put France in front on 81 after a Michael Olise pass, and Olise added two goals of his own, on 88 and in stoppage time. All four French goals came from players introduced after the hour: Olise, Cherki and Lucas Da Cunha had replaced Dembélé, Akliouche and Koné, with Doué following a few minutes later.

From Brussels to Madrid, the same disbelief

• In Spain, AS called it “a masterclass from Zidane” and “a memorable performance in barely ten minutes” from Olise, while Mundo Deportivo saw the winger “pull out his magic wand just in time” and summed it up as “a real madness”.
• In Italy, La Gazzetta dello Sport wrote that “you can start saying there is a France with and without Michael Olise… Pure theatre”.
• In Germany, Sport Bild noted that “joker Olise shines twice over and turns the game around for France”.
• In Belgium, La Dernière Heure saw the defence “turned into a row of cones” and titled its piece “from dream to nightmare”.

The BBC picked the number that sums up the year: seventeen goals involved by Olise in 2026, seven goals and ten assists, a total only Thierry Henry has bettered this century (19 in 2003). The Stade de France had already made up its mind: the crowd turned Dembélé’s song into “Olise for the Ballon d’Or!”.

“What he does is simply exceptional”

On TF1, Zinédine Zidane savoured his first home win on the France bench: “We didn’t have a bad first half, but we lacked danger in the box… Our second half was extraordinary. I’m proud of my players.” On Olise, he did not elaborate: “What he does is simply exceptional.”

France now top the group on ten points, three more than Italy, whom they meet again on 12 November. The audience followed the turnaround: 6.33 million viewers on TF1, a 33 per cent share. The prediction in our match preview, France at 1.55 with 10BET, landed: this comeback came from the bench, not from the starting XI.