Zinedine Zidane has spent most of his managerial career perfecting the art of looking completely unmoved on the touchline, but France's dramatic late winner against Belgium finally broke the pattern. When Michael Olise scored in the 88th minute to give France a 1-0 victory in Brussels, Zidane celebrated before turning towards the technical area and smashing a ball that had been sitting on top of a nearby training cone.
The ball flew away as the France manager continued celebrating with his staff, producing one of the first genuinely unguarded moments of his new international career. It was only Zidane's second match in charge of Les Bleus, but judging by his reaction, the late winner meant considerably more than another entry in the Nations League standings.
Olise's late goal changed everything
France arrived in Brussels only three days after beating Türkiye 1-0 in Zidane's first game as national-team manager. That opening victory had come at a cost, with Kylian Mbappé suffering a knee injury while scoring the winning goal and subsequently returning to Real Madrid.
Zidane responded by radically changing his team, making nine alterations to the starting XI and using the international window to look at different combinations rather than simply sending out the same side again. The result was a much tighter and less spectacular game than France's new manager might have wanted, with Belgium frustrating Les Bleus for long periods as the match appeared to be drifting towards a goalless draw.
The breakthrough finally arrived with two minutes of normal time remaining. Olise, who had started the evening on the bench before being introduced during the second half, found the decisive goal and transformed what had been a difficult away night into France's second consecutive victory under Zidane.
The reaction from the technical area told its own story. Zidane initially celebrated the goal before spotting the ball resting on the nearby cone and launching it away with a powerful right-footed strike. For a man whose public image as a coach has generally been built around control, the spontaneous release of emotion immediately stood out.
A very different Zidane from the one Real Madrid fans remember
Zidane was hardly emotionless during his two spells as Real Madrid manager. There were celebrations, confrontations and moments of visible frustration during a period in which he won three consecutive Champions League titles and two La Liga championships, but his touchline personality was usually remarkably restrained. While other elite managers sprinted down touchlines, argued with fourth officials or turned celebrations into performances of their own, Zidane generally maintained the same composed appearance regardless of what was happening around him.
That calmness became part of his managerial identity, which is why the scene in Brussels attracted so much attention. There was nothing particularly rehearsed about the reaction: Zidane did not appear to realise that the cameras were following him as he turned and struck the ball. It looked less like a manager trying to project something to his players and more like somebody who had been holding tension for 88 minutes and suddenly had somewhere to release it.
The circumstances probably mattered too. Zidane waited years for the opportunity to manage France and repeatedly made little secret of the fact that the national team was the job he ultimately wanted. His first international window therefore carries a different emotional weight from an ordinary club fixture, and two games into the job some of that emotion finally appeared on the surface.
Zidane's substitutions made the difference
The goal was particularly satisfying for Zidane because it came from a player he had introduced from the bench. With Mbappé unavailable, France's attacking structure inevitably looked different, but Zidane resisted the temptation simply to reproduce the same system with another player occupying his captain's position.
Instead, the nine changes gave several members of the squad an opportunity to make their case during the new manager's first extended international camp, and Olise took his opportunity with the decisive goal. His late winner gave France six points from Zidane's opening two matches and ensured that the excitement surrounding his appointment survived the first week of competitive football.
France have hardly overwhelmed their opponents, with both victories coming by a single goal, but Zidane has already seen his team find ways to win two very different matches. Against Türkiye, Mbappé delivered the decisive moment before suffering his knee injury; against Belgium, the solution came from the bench with the match almost over. For a new national-team manager still learning what he has available, those are encouraging problems to solve.
Two games, two wins — and finally some emotion
It is far too early to draw conclusions about what Zidane's France will eventually become. Two matches cannot establish a tactical identity, and the unusual September-October international window gives him four games in quick succession to experiment with his squad. Italy and Belgium are still to come before the players return to their clubs, while tougher nights will inevitably arrive once expectations rise and Zidane's decisions are judged over a larger sample of matches.
For now, his start could hardly look cleaner on paper: two matches, two victories and no goals conceded. Yet the most memorable image from Brussels was not the scoreline or even Olise's finish. It was Zidane, usually one of the calmest figures in the stadium, suddenly losing himself in the moment and leathering an innocent football off a training cone after waiting almost the entire match for France to find a breakthrough.
France had waited years for Zidane to become national-team manager, and his first two matches have already delivered two victories. The celebration in Brussels also showed that, beneath the familiar calm exterior, the job clearly means plenty to him.
Published by Patrick Jane
29.09.2026