You had to take a stroll on social networks on Sunday evening to become fully aware of the mix of fear and admiration that football fans from all walks of life have for the French team. Three days after beating Brazil, the Blues showed up with 11 different players against Colombia, and still delivered a very high level performance, with high-class offensive moves to win in style (3-1).
At the same time, when your second knives are Ryan Cherki, Désiré Doué, Magnes Akliouche and Marcus Thuram (with Bradley Barcola in the infirmary), it’s simpler. “France’s B team can reach the semi-finals of the World Cup without any problem,” believes Mexican journalist Juan Carlos Zuniga, for example. Didier Deschamps knows that he is sitting on a gold mine, but it is his role not to say it too loudly.
“Don’t see yourself as too beautiful”
Asked about the words of Lucas Hernandez who had just said that the Blues had the best attack in the world, after the victory against the Colombians, the coach wanted to keep his feet on the ground. “He said that?” I’ll talk to him right away, he replied, smiling. We’re not going to see ourselves looking too good, but we shouldn’t minimize it. Obviously we have the potential, yes. I have ambition, but we must not lose humility. I’m not going to hide. It is not by trumpeting that we are the most beautiful and the strongest that we will get there. »
He’s not wrong, of course. France is well placed to know that victories in the World Cup are firstly built on defensive solidity. However, leaving with so much talent and variety allows us to say that we have everything in hand to overthrow any team.
“We had a lot of cohesion and even if we had less automatisms, it was a very good match and a good rehearsal,” reacted Lucas Digne in the mixed zone. When you’re surrounded by good players, it’s not difficult. » A bit of everyone’s speech after this meeting. In the end, of the 26 players called up for this mini-tour, 25 will have had playing time (only the 3rd goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier did not enter).
All the news from the Blues
It remains to make choices now, when no one made it through during this last gathering before the list of the lucky ones, the announcement of which will take place on May 14. “At all positions, there are choices. There are a lot of applicants but a good twenty of the players present, if there are no physical problems, will be there, underlined DD. This is the high level. We will take the time to choose. I stick to my logic. »
The day after this trip which smelled good of World Cupeveryone is now waiting to get to the heart of the matter. The Blues were in any case able to make their mark, with the discovery of their future base camp in Boston (the Four Seasons hotel) and their training center, located at Bentley University (Massachusetts).
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