Since the Euro last June, the Blues have the unfortunate habit of taking pleasure in being scared. As it prepares to play its qualification for the 2022 World Cup this Saturday, November 13 (8:45 p.m.) against Kazakhstan, the French team, which has become the champion of the reaction in recent months, conceded the opener. in seven of his last eight games. Each time, the Blues came back to the score.
Even if Didier Deschamps’ team managed to win the League of Nations in October under these conditions after a stunning Italian week, we would bet that the coach is expecting change. That his players get rid of this mania, to avoid new sweats in a match as decisive as the one that awaits the Blues this Saturday at the Parc des Princes.
In the event of victory against Kazakhstan, the France team would overcome a group D in which it has never lost but has experienced the greatest difficulties to assume its status of world champion. But if it were to find itself led, as in recent months, the situation could become unbreathable. Even against Kazakhstan.
Because to tell the truth, the Blues already have their ticket for Qatar. All that remains is to compost it – while the France team rarely qualifies on the penultimate day of a qualifying campaign – against the 125th nation in the FIFA rankings. An opponent more than acceptable and barring a mishap, France should obtain tonight the precious sesame which will allow it to fly to Doha, in a little over a year for the start of the World Cup, on November 21, 2022.
But to ensure the essential, the Blues will have to be serious. A message hammered home by Hugo Lloris on Friday, at a pre-match press conference: “We know our obligations and that means a victory. Everything has to be done. (…) You have to be ready because you never know what to expect and even more so when faced with teams that have nothing to lose.“In the first leg last March, despite the difference in level between the players of the two teams, the Blues won only 2-0 on a synthetic turf and at the end of a soporific match.
The history shared by the French team and the Parc des Princes – where this meeting was relocated because of the symbolism of the date, six years after the attacks, and for work on the RER B – must also remind the players the necessary seriousness for such a meeting. The French team won its first international trophy, Euro 1984, at the Parc des Princes, but also experienced immense disillusionment there in November 1993.
“My first memories of football are the 1994 World Cup in the United States, without the France team. Later, I understood why France was not there“, said Lloris Friday, referring to France-Bulgaria (1-2) and the double of Emil Kostadinov who had deprived the Blues of the American World Cup. Didier Deschamps, on the lawn that evening, kicked in touch yesterday: “I am very happy (to come back to Parc des Princes), as I am optimistic by nature, I only remember good memories“.
But the coach experienced this cruel evening and will not fail to remind his players that a misstep is never far away. Of a suspicious nature, even despite the victory in the League of Nations which re-boosted the dynamics of his team – “the best vitamin is to win“- Deschamps will release the heavy artillery on Saturday evening, while he had turned during the first leg at Noursoultan.
Let’s go for training the day before the match #ProuddetreBleus pic.twitter.com/uNsnVS8i74
– French team ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) November 12, 2021
Karim Benzema, who participated in his first collective training of the week last night, will be there. Kingsley Coman, who was a straight piston for half of yesterday’s closed-door showdown, could take Pavard’s place. The winger spoke at length with Deschamps at the end of training, the coach giving him instructions on his placement in a position which is foreign to him.
Sign of the ambition for this match of the Blues whose objective will be to score early in the match. “We have had this kind of games to play in the past and we know it, we have to make them easy. It goes through a very big start to the game. (…) We have to put on intensity, score quickly to be able to have a good time with our supporters“, Lloris insisted. Do everything, therefore, to avoid having to play a decisive match against Finland next Tuesday in Helsinki, in inevitably unfavorable conditions.
But in the event of a draw between Bosnia and Finland in mid-afternoon this Saturday, the France team would only need one point against Kazakhstan tonight to qualify. However, this is not the time for small calculations, so as not to have to play this final against the Finns, while top names like Portugal, Croatia and Spain will have to go through there on Sunday to hope to grab first place. of their group.
“Qualifying is always a long road, sometimes perilous“Said Didier Deschamps at a press conference on Friday, before training for the Blues. The France team is seeing the end of it. All that remains is to have the modest Kazakhstan team to accomplish”another of his three 2021 goals“(Euro, League of Nations, qualifications for the World Cup) as explained by the coach. Otherwise, it will be necessary to go to rub its destiny on the side of Helsinki.