Manchester United star Anthony Martial had a night to forget on Wednesday, with French newspaper L’Equipe giving him a rating of just three – the joint-lowest on the pitch – after the win for France against Albania.
The 20-year-old started on the bench for France’s opening Euro 2016 game against Romania last week, but Didier Deschamps gave the former Monaco starlet roughly 15 minutes at the end.
Following France’s lacklustre display in the capital last week, Deschamps tinkered with his starting line-up for Wednesday’s game against Albania in Marseille.
Martial was given a start at the Stade Velodrome, but the Manchester United forward struggled and was eventually hauled off at half-time to be replaced by Paul Pogba.
While Pogba offered very little as Martial’s replacement, the latter bore the brunt of the criticism on home soil and L’Equipe gave the young talent the lowest rating in the squad.
France managed to rescue the three points late on when Antoine Griezmann, among those dropped to the bench for the start of the game, headed home.
The lively Dimitri Payet added the second in stoppage time and yet again secured another late win for the Euro 2016 hosts.
Deschamps’ side have now qualified for the knockout phases and will be hoping for a strong final group performance against Switzerland.
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