This time Didier Deschamps didn't shout at his players, lose his temper or raise his voice. Four days after France's embarrassing 3-2 defeat at home against Colombia -- when the manager was let down by the complacency and arrogance of his men -- he saw them beat World Cup hosts Russia 3-1 on Tuesday night.
Those two games were supposed to help Deschamps' decision making process before the announcement of his World Cup squad. Instead, it will be much harder than he thought.
There are actually more negatives than positives to take out from France's two warm-up friendlies -- including the racial abuse suffered by the players in Russia -- which is a big worry at this stage of the season. Indeed, the biggest lesson from this international break is the lack of collective strength Les Bleus have.
With the ball, there was no pattern of play; no passing triangles, hardly any one-twos either. There were barely any combinations from the front four of Thomas Lemar, Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud against Colombia, and certainly none from the trio of Ousmane Dembele, Anthony Martial and Mbappe against Russia.
In the 2-2 draw in Germany in November, Les Bleus offered far more collectively. But March has taken them two or three steps backwards and captain Hugo Lloris struggled to find an explanation after the Russia game, saying: "I don't know why we haven't done better with the ball."
Deschamps hardly talked about his team's display either. The head coach tried two different formations. Against Colombia he went for 4-4-2, his favourite, and it worked for 25 minutes before crumbling. The attitude of the players, their lack of effort and work ethic encouraged the manager to try something else against Russia.
So he went for a 4-3-3. The pace and skill of France's attacking trio should have been an asset for the team, and the idea was to play quickly in transition and on the counter, but the team's pressing was not good enough and the French struggled to get the ball back and link the midfield with the forwards.
The issue around Deschamps' tactical system will be at the heart of the conversations of all France fans until the game against Australia kicks off on June 16 in Kazan, and maybe beyond that as well. The manager will simply have to choose.
Neither formation have looked convincing, but isolated in the last two results, the 4-3-3 has to be the better option.
It was a very young France team (an average age of 24 years and six months) that took to the pitch in St Petersburg, the third youngest in the last 12 years, but it cannot be an excuse for not attacking and defending together as a team. The average pitch and the oddly warm temperature inside the stadium with the roof closed can't be either.
Another major worry for Deschamps will be defensively. France have now only kept one clean sheet in their last five matches and gave too many opportunities to Colombia and Russia. It was notable that, despite his club struggles, Laurent Koscielny outshone both Raphael Varane and Samuel Umtiti. The Real Madrid and Barcelona defenders were really poor together on Friday and Umtiti was again extremely disappointing on Tuesday, making far too many mistakes.
On the positive side, at 19 years and three months old Mbappe became the youngest French player to score a brace for the national team since 1933, with teammate Blaise Matuidi saying after the game: "He is a phenomenon! What he does at his age is just extraordinary and he will keep beating records."
The PSG striker played centrally on Tuesday and wide on Friday where he also picked up an assist. Even as teenager, Mbappe is now totally indispensable to France wherever you play him and even if he doesn't give enough for the team.
Meanwhile, Paul Pogba wanted to prove his doubters wrong and he did just that against Russia. His assist for Mbappe's first goal was delightful and his free kick was superb (his first assist in a French shirt since September 2016 and his first goal since November 2016), while most of his passes created danger or brought something to the team.
France are better with him than without him, even if defensively he still isn't working hard enough. "Paul was committed," said Deschamps after the game. "He has this creativity and this quality of passing in him. We expect a lot from him and I demand a lot from him too. This game will boost him."
Deschamps now has six weeks to get his 23-man squad right and come up with a tactical plan to make sure Les Bleus have a successful World Cup. There is a lot of work to be done but at least France can go into the build-up to the tournament with a morale-boosting win behind them.