At the Stade de France,
Didier Deschamps is not very lucky. A defeat of the France team against Austria, and he heard all evening about the pans of the FFF, and its alleged impact on the sporting life of the Blues. A 2-0 victory, with a goal from Olivier Giroud, and here is the debate on his presence or not at the World Cup relaunched. Heads I win, tails you lose.
Let’s be clear. On the sporting level, there is no doubt that no one deserves as much as Olivier Giroud to be the number 9 substitute for the French team in Qatar. His headed goal against the Austrians is almost allegorical: the Milanese was the only one to see in the bell-shaped center of Antoine Griezmann a decisive ball. Well he took it. Giroud scored his 49th goal for the France team and is inexorably approaching Thierry Henry’s record. And the World Cup? Nothing is less sure.
Deschamps finally not frozen on the Giroud case
Before the match, it was even more than badly embarked. “He knows what I think, said Deschamps the day before. I’m not going to go back on that, repeat things that I have said, historically, in relation to the statute. There were other players that I didn’t take in relation to their status, and that made less noise. Words that mean everything and nothing, but that observers have agreed to consider as a bad omen from the Oracle. The idea being that if Benzema is fresh and available for Qatar, Giroud would remain at the dock.
But DD is basically a human like us, and as stubborn as he is, we can’t decently remain insensitive to the selflessness of a man on whom age has no effect. Nor in front of the huge ovation of the Stade de France when he left the field. If it were up to Jonathan Clauss, the Milanese would already have his ticket to Doha. “He is true to himself. He is someone who gives everything for the team on the ground, applauded the Marseillais at the microphone of La Chaîne L’Equipe. I have to congratulate him, it can’t be easy. He has an exceptional strength of character, a warrior mentality and it shows. »
DD does not want us to interpret his words
Good news, Didier Deschamps is not blind. Neither ungrateful, or not entirely. The coach says he is happy for his striker, recalling nevertheless that if he calls him “it’s for him to score goals”. As the wise Mario Balotelli said, you don’t congratulate a postman because he does his job well, since that’s what is expected of him. But we digress.
The coach is now faced with a puzzle. On the one hand, he is convinced that the loss of the status of holder of his world champion does not necessarily suit him and that in this, it is risky to integrate him into a group of players supposed to live together for a month. On the other, he is the only credible alternative to Karim Benzema (in a completely different style). “He must continue to be efficient, warns DD on the team. But don’t interpret what I say. Did I say he would be there or not? No. But he does everything to be there. There is competition in all positions. I can have the margin by taking 26 players. But so much the better to see it like that. I will have time to think. “A last word from the real boss of this team, alias Kylian Mbappé? “We’ll see how it goes when Karim [Benzema] will come back. The two men have never seemed so connected.