Two assists and a post: Lizarazu urges Olise to start scoring

Michael Olise once again lit up the evening for the Blues on Tuesday, delivering two assists in the 2026 World Cup round of 16 won by France against Sweden (3-0). An overall performance that sparked an enthusiastic reaction from Bixente Lizarazu.

The 1998 World Cup winner made no secret of his enthusiasm when analyzing the performance of the Bayern Munich midfielder. “Michael Olise, I’ve obviously talked about him a lot before, but this is too much. Michael, it’s too much,” he said, before getting carried away with the player’s technical qualities. “Oriented control, that’s Michael Olise. I think you have to make your mark. The pass. What are these passes? It’s not possible.”

Lizarazu also mentioned an attempted overhead scissor kick by Olise that crashed into the base of the opposite post, a missed opportunity that inspired a quip that became the line of the evening: “Well, on the other hand, you’re not scoring. Michael, you have to score. You have to stop just making assists, you have to score.” Before concluding on a more solemn note: “It’s artistic what Michael Olise does on a football pitch. He’s an artist. We’re very lucky to have a player like him.”

Qualified for the quarter-finals, France will face Paraguay, an opponent that Lizarazu himself faced at the same stage of the 1998 World Cup. Back then, the Blues got through thanks to Laurent Blanc’s golden goal in extra time. Olise and his teammates hope to settle the matter much earlier.