Zidane, Mancini get first home wins

France left it late to beat Belgium 4-1 in the Nations League, as Zinedine Zidane got his first home win as the national coach on Monday.

In a 14-minute flurry, goals from Desire Doue, Rayan Cherki and a brace from Michael Olise, who all came on as substitutes, completely turned the match around for France, which trailed until the 77th minute.

"Tonight, this is soccer, this is what we love," Zidane said. "We faced some difficulties in the first half, but that's part of the game; it's the kind of match you get from time to time. It's good to set things right — which is what we did — and we managed to play an extraordinary second half."

The win reinforced France's control of Group A1, three points above Italy, which beat Turkiye 3-1.

Third-placed Belgium slipped four points below France. Turkiye has no points.

Zidane started his time in charge of Les Bleus with wins over Turkiye and Belgium, before being held to a draw by Italy on his home debut as France boss on Friday.

"It's a collective effort, too," Olise said. "He (Zidane) brings in ideas, we follow them — we've done that well over the last four matches, we're going to continue like this.

"I think we played well at the end. The first half was difficult, but we kept going and we're happy," Olise said.

The Bayern Munich winger has been France's most influential player in the early stages of Zidane's reign, netting four times in his last three matches, despite starting only once.

France is still to book a spot in the quarterfinals. It would have been assured of one of the top two places in the group if Italy had failed to beat Turkiye.

Bench to the rescue

At the Stade de France, Belgium took the lead in the 35th minute. Dodi Lukebakio broke the offside trap to run onto a magnificent, long pass from Romeo Lavia, raced through one-on-one with debutant French keeper Guillaume Restes and powered it over him and into the back of the net.

But Zidane's star-studded bench turned things around. Doue leveled in the 77th with a low shot into the bottom right corner, and Les Bleus took the lead in somewhat strange fashion four minutes later.

Maarten Vandevoordt appeared set to save Cherki's strike, but the ball hit the Belgian goalie's foot and rebounded in off his left arm. Olise set that up and added two goals in three minutes himself to seal the match.

"We knew the substitutes could change the game because they are high-quality players," Zidane said. "But, once again, it was a complete team performance; while the substitutes might have made the difference when they came on, everyone has been good over these past two weeks — everyone played their part, and that's what stands out to me.

"We talk about Olise because he scored, and Desire came on and scored — every player who came on scored — which means it was the right call."

Azzurri rebuild continues

In Italy, Roberto Mancini was also looking for a first home win. He began his latest stint in the Italy dugout with a loss in Rome to Belgium before morale-boosting away performances against Turkiye — where the Azzurri won 4-1 — and France.

Turkiye was under pressure after scoring just one goal and conceding eight in its three matches. It was also missing key players, but, nevertheless started brighter in Bologna.

However, Italy took the lead against the run of play in the 26th. Gianluca Scamacca attempted to knock down a cross and it bounced off a Turkish defender's shoulder before falling kindly back to Scamacca, who volleyed it in off the underside of the crossbar.

Aral Simsir swept in a deserved equalizer for Turkiye in the 61st, but Italy was back in front just three minutes later when Riccardo Calafiori headed in Nicolo Barella's free kick.

Pio Esposito sealed the win late on when he tapped in Alessandro Romano's shot. Esposito became only the second Italy player to score seven international goals before his 21st birthday.

"Even though we had made a lot of changes, there was fatigue all around, and we struggled a bit," said Mancini, who started with recent debutants Romano and Issa Doumbia in midfield and the previously uncapped Antonio Vergara on the right wing.

"But we did well to score, and then to score again right after they equalized.

"We have to keep playing. We're currently in second place, and we'll likely have to fight to secure that spot in Belgium."

Italy is rebuilding under Mancini, who has returned for a second spell as coach after Italy failed, again, to qualify for the World Cup.

Gyokeres scores again

Viktor Gyokeres extended his record Nations League scoring streak to seven games to fire Sweden to a 1-0 win in Romania.

It was a fourth of the campaign for Gyokeres, who broke the record on Friday.

Sweden tops Group B4 and is two points above Bosnia and Herzegovina, which beat Poland 1-0.

Northern Ireland remained on top of Group B2, despite being held to a 0-0 draw by Georgia. Hungary beat Ukraine 2-1 and sits second.

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