The year 2022 has just started, but the Blues already know exactly how they want to end it: a gold medal around their necks, a World Cup in their hands and a third star on their jersey. The World Cup in Qatar (November 21-December 18) is already on everyone’s mind. The priority objective of a year which must end in apotheosis for the first Winter World Cup.
Before that, before seeing themselves grown up, the Blues will first dive into this year 2022 with a first friendly match on Friday March 25 against Côte d’Ivoire. Four months after their last meeting, it is in Marseille that Didier Deschamps and his players will take their first steps of the year together. Thursday, during the last training session on the lawn of the Vélodrome stadium, under the sun and the spring air which was setting in, there was a relaxed atmosphere and smiles were out.
Friday evening, they will give way to concentrated looks and an audience that promises to be boiling. It is against Côte d’Ivoire and in front of 65,000 spectators that the year will have to start well, during a match that will only be friendly in name.
Since the first edition of the League of Nations in 2018, these friendly meetings have become increasingly rare. And the players of Deschamps would be wrong to approach these two matches as meetings without stake. On the contrary, they are of particular importance. Capital city. To adapt to the heat of Doha, the World Cup will take place at the end of the year with all the calendar puzzles that entails. As a result, the coaches will have to adapt in turn, without any preparation match before the World Cup.
During the three gatherings that will precede the start of the World Cup – in June and September for the League of Nations – in addition to these two friendly matches, the Blues will not have a minute to lose. “There is still a little time [avant la Coupe du monde]but when opportunities arise, seize them“, conceded Hugo Lloris, Thursday, at a press conference. The countdown has actually already started during the rally on Monday in Clairefontaine: everything must tend towards preparation for the big meeting in Qatar.
Destination Marseille for the Blues!#ProudToBeBlues
tomorrow at 9:15 p.m. on M6 pic.twitter.com/YGxgu2JUwF
— French team ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) March 24, 2022
And since confidence comes with winning – one of Didier Deschamps’ favorite themes after the failed Euro – it would be inappropriate to experience a disappointment against Côte d’Ivoire when time is precious. “We can say that these matches have no value, but I know very well that we have to win them, because otherwise they will quickly increase in value., explained, with a smile on his face, Didier Deschamps on Monday at Clairefontaine. Aware of the importance of these matches, the coach and his staff have thought about the opponents to face. And the choice of Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa is far from trivial.
The France team could have discovered the heat of Doha this March, by participating in a friendly tournament organized by Qatar. But travel conditions and potential opponents – Slovenia and Bulgaria – got the better of this option. Instead, the Blues will be pitted against the Ivorians and South Africans, who will not see Qatar. Two teams whose style of play resembles the African selections which could fall into the group of France during the draw for the World Cup on April 1. Optimization of the time remaining before the competition, always.
Fine-tuning the tactical system is the other major challenge of these two matches. The 3-4-1-2, badly born against Switzerland in the round of 16 of the Euro (3-3, 4-5 pens), then returned thanks to an attractive performance against Finland in Lyon in September (2-0), remains to work. “I am convinced that there is a need to improve the system in relation to certain situations, with adjustments to be made“, assured Deschamps in a press conference, he who is used to testing other systems during friendly matches, if necessary.
The absences of Karim Benzema, due to an injury, and Kylian Mbappé, whose presence is still uncertain due to an ENT infection, do not appear to be detrimental. Offensive automatisms, as we have seen, are already present. Karim Benzema and Kylian Mbappé speak the same football and get along wonderfully. It is not lost and it could even improve by the World Cup if the two meet next year at Real Madrid. Their absence could make it possible to see other faces, like that of Christopher Nkunku who could start, while Deschamps said he wanted to do “play as many players as possible“in both games.
It is more on the defensive level that the Blues will continue to break in, in a demanding system that Deschamps has decided to settle for the long term after using it sparingly in recent years. Continuing to see Kingsley Coman as a right piston, studying the contribution of novices Jonathan Clauss, Christopher Nkunku and William Saliba, analyzing the return of Olivier Giroud and scrutinizing how Jules Koundé takes advantage of the absence of Benjamin Pavard: these are some of the questions raised by these two matches, which are more so friendly when you change focus.
@orangevelodrome pic.twitter.com/ZaOIp7KpBa
— French team ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) March 24, 2022
Yes, the World Cup is already on everyone’s mind. And, we imagine, in that of Didier Deschamps in the first place. The 3-4-1-2 should go well in Qatar, and the coach continues to look for the players who will compose it. Time is already running out. And history will remember that it is in Marseille fervor that the French team begins this new adventure, the one that will take it to Doha.
We left the Blues at the end of 2021 with the satisfaction of the work accomplished in Finland (2-0), a month after the success in the League of Nations in Milan. They now aspire to end 2022 on the roof of the world, on December 18, and the path starts on Friday against Côte d’Ivoire.