The France team spent a final test run on Tuesday (9:10 p.m.) against Bulgaria in front of 5,000 spectators in Saint-Denis, with the hope of maintaining its confidence intact and avoiding any injury, a week before its entry into the vying for the Euro.
The morale of the world champions is high, almost two weeks after the start of preparation for the European Championship (June 11-July 11).
The reinstatement of Karim Benzema after more than five and a half years of absence went without a hitch, the anti-Covid tests did not hold any bad surprises, the first friendly match was a formality on Wednesday in Nice against the Welsh ( 3-0), and the training sessions at Clairefontaine (Yvelines) are all more joyful than the others …
Nothing seems to disrupt, so far, the selection of Didier Deschamps, not even the status of favorite favorite of the Euro, attributed to him by observers in Europe.
“We will be expected with this status of world champion, everyone will want to beat the France team. It is clear, precise, and we are preparing to meet all these challenges,” said captain Hugo Lloris on Monday, presenting confidence and prudence as the pillars of success: “At a very high level, if we do not show humility, we can pay dearly,” he warned.
– Kanté is back –
Even if “there will be a respondent”, dixit Deschamps, Bulgaria stuck in 71st place in the Fifa ranking will have nothing to do with Germany, the first formidable opponent on June 15 in Munich, or the Portugal of Cristiano Ronaldo , another group F ogre of the Euro.
We must therefore continue to ramp up before the big meeting, fine-tune the automatisms and build up a rhythm. “The objective is not to measure oneself, it is to have playing time, to find benchmarks”, warns Lloris. But “the date that is in our heads is June 15 against the Germans. In the approach there will be other things: adrenaline, this part of the unknown”.
With Kylian Mbappé, Karim Benzema and Antoine Griezmann, the “golden triangle” needs minutes in the field and Deschamps has already repeated that this second preparation match could not be “a workforce review” as was the first.
The coach notably recovers a centerpiece, N’Golo Kanté, who arrived late like Olivier Giroud and Kurt Zouma after their success in the Champions League with Chelsea. But the best player in the C1 final came back tired and only resumed collective training at the end of the week.
– 5,000 guests –
After an extended season and in the heart of a shortened preparation, freshness will be essential and the management of the Tricolores will probably not want to take any risk in the face of the physical glitches which affect the group a few days before the start for Munich.
Kingsley Coman, Adrien Rabiot (ankle) and Lucas Hernandez (knee) are thus uncertain, as confirmed by the Basque technician on Monday, without however noting their package. The first two trained separately Monday evening at the Stade de France, unlike the third.
As for Olivier Giroud, lacking rhythm after the end of the season spent on the Chelsea bench, he has not abandoned his “goal” to hold the Euro and will need to find sensations in his garden from Saint-Denis where he scored 22 of his 44 international goals.
The enclosure will sound less hollow than in recent months because 5,000 spectators will be invited there, the French Federation having obtained an exemption from the curfew and health restrictions, one day ahead of the new stage of deconfinement.
Armed with a “QR code” justifying a vaccine or a negative anti-Covid test, 800 caregivers, 500 students and 450 firefighters, police officers and gendarmes will thus have the opportunity to give a last popular boost to the world champions , before serious matters.
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