The Seville midfielder was drafted into the midfield in favor of Paul Pogba, who was rested for this match. N’Zonzi accompanied N’golo Kante in a midfield pivot and hardly ever wandered ahead from his position. This was satisfactory from a defensive perspective, but Steven could have done much more to peg Denmark back into the field.
His rigidity to stick to his position meant that N’Zonzi played a lot of sideways passes and was unable to assert the same level of dynamism and authority to the midfield like Pogba does.
He shielded the backline and distributed the ball to the wings, but did not show the intent to carry the ball ahead like him or to attempt those long balls to target man Olivier Giroud, whose presence would have helped France create some opportunities through the second balls lying inside the box.
Both Kante and Zonzi were quite one-dimensional, with the Seville midfielder contributing more to the defensive side of the game. This could have been different, N’Zonzi should have taken charge of the midfield by running riot with the ball but he adopted a very reserved approach that certainly did not do justice to his talent and abilities.