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Giroud hat-trick overshadowed by first Moussa Sissoko goal since leaving Newcastle

7 years ago
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Moussa Sissoko was back on the scoresheet on Friday night, the former Newcastle midfielder showing the goalscoring form that made Tottenham pay £30m (THIRTY!) last August.

The footballing world was stunned as Sissoko proved his doubters wrong, failing to miss an open goal (watch below) after a sweeping move from his teammates.

Last night saw France hosting Paraguay in a friendly game, Olivier Giroud scoring in the 6th, 13th and 69th minutes, to become the first player to score a hat-trick for France in 17 years.

However, that was overshadowed when only seven minutes later, Moussa Sissoko added a fourth goal, before a minute later Griezmann completed the rout with a fifth.

Sissoko had been a very surprising selection in the squad as Didier Deschamps has made clear his policy is to only involve players getting regular club football – the Tottenham midfielder having made only one Premier League start in the final five months of the season, until given a start on the final day of the season with Spurs already guaranteed runners-up spot.

Despite this, rather bizarrely Moussa Sissoko gave an interview earlier this week (see below) where he asked Mauricio Pochettino to just be honest with him, as he wasn’t sure whether he was a key part of the Spurs Manager’s future plans.

Against Paraguay, Moussa Sissoko came on at half-time in place of Dembele and there was also a first ever chance of international football for Newcastle’s soon to be departing Florian Thauvin, getting the last 10 minutes in place of Griezmann.

Sissoko’s goal last night was his first, for club or country – any competition, since he left Newcastle United.

The previous goal came in a 3-0 win for Newcastle over Swansea on 16 April 2016 but just to make Tottenham’s decision to pay £30m for the attacking midfielder look even more ludicrous (if that’s possible…), you then have to go back to 24 May 2015 (2-0 v West Ham) for Sissoko’s last goal before the one against Swansea.

So until his goal last night in the friendly, Sissoko had scored one goal for club and country in over two years – remarkable.

Moussa Sissoko speaking to L’Equipe:

“I would like him (Mauricio Pochettino) to communicate better.

“I want a completely honest conversation to see what they (Tottenham) plan to do, what they are seeing in terms of my future.

“From that moment on, everything will be clearer in my head.

 “You can never be sure of anything and once again, what I want is for everything to be clear.

“If the manager is no longer counting on me, if he thinks that other players are better, then he should say it.

“The idea is for it to be clear very early so that if I need to leave, my agent avn do good work.

“Even if everyone knows that I prefer England, I have never closed the door to any other league.

“We will see what offers there are and Ligue 1 continues to be attractive – we have seen this season with PSG and Monaco then also teams like Nice, Lyon and Marseille.

“We’ll analyse everything and try to make the best choice.”

Go to 3.45 for Sissoko’s goal against Paraguary below:

[youtube=https://youtu.be/WCe2s3uFsXo&w=600]

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