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To get to this point, we had to get off to a good start against Austria on Monday, but the Blues systematically won their first major tournament match in Didier Deschamps’ 12 years in charge.
They have been in the finals of three of the last four major tournaments (World Cup in 2018 and 2022, Euro 2016) and they are favourites to win, on par with Germany or England at home. But their armour has been scratched by recent friendly results, with two defeats to Germany in September 2023 (2-1) and last March (2-0), or the dismal result against Canada on June 9 (0-0).
“Now, we are ready,” assured Benjamin Pavard. “The status of the favorite goes in one ear and out the other,” said Ousmane Dembélé. “The truth is out there. You can come up against an Austrian team that you can’t get past, and then you lose.” 1982 World Cup, Platini Gang (1-0).
“This position cannot torture us, it must give us confidence,” added Olivier Giroud. The last friendly “was not a success and obviously we shouldn’t be satisfied with a game like this, but we are aware of that.
The most important thing is to correct these little things in the first match, the smallest, tiny adjustments, not to worry about at all ”, added the selected top scorer (57 goals).
He is also not “worried” about Kylian Mbappe. The Blues’ main asset, the team’s design core, skipped a total of four group training sessions during preparation.
Since announcing the 25-man squad, Deschamps has confirmed his starting XI for Austria, but he will obviously have to adapt to the form of each individual.
The coach should not have played Aurelien Tsoumeni, who had returned to training but seemed too nervous to start.
Youssef Fofana could start alongside N’Golo Kante if Adrien Rabiot, who has not played since May 20, does not fully recover.
In the central hinge, the position next to Dayot Upamecano is taken between William Saliba and Ibrahima Konate.
On both sides, “DD” could continue the asymmetrical system used in the two games against Luxembourg (3-0) and Canada in June: three defenders in the possession phase to take advantage of the counter-attacking talents of Theo Hernández on the left.
When he loses the ball, the AC Milan player has to re-enter the four-man formation and cover with the help of teammates Marcus Thuram, Rabiot or Fofana and Upamecano in his area.
“We prepare more tactics, not just this one”, said Theo Hernandez, while admitting: “We know that I like to attack, I like the attacking phase…”
Pavard “found it to be a very good strategy. We have mastered it well and we can do it a little bit better.”
On the ground, it is Austria that must be stopped. They are unbeaten in seven games, having beaten Turkey 6-1 and Germany 2-0.
France lost to the “Wunderteam” of the legendary Matthias Sindelar in extra time (3-2) in the round of 16 of the 1934 World Cup and triumphed in the 1982 World Cup, the third time that France faced his Platini’s band in a major tournament (1-0).
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