From our Special Envoy in Doha,
The match-eve press conferences, more agreed you die, rarely give birth to great media moments and never teach us more than what we already know about the state of the troops. That of Didier Deschamps, past Yoda master in the matter, 24 hours before the match against Australia, was no exception to the rule. Until a foreign journalist took the microphone and recited at school the question he had prepared on his little notebook. Which gives something like this: “France has lost Benzema, but there is Giroud. He is brilliant in Milan but he is not very popular in France, what do you think? “.
Amused response from the coach: “Lately he has been adored, even there (in the room), and yet there are many who have criticized him!, he says with a big smile in front of a hilarious room. But since then (Giroud’s injury, we imagine), ugh! An indisputable owner. France is delighted, me too and Olivier too”. He could also have added that it was he and he alone who decided to snub the Milanese to choose the beautiful eyes of Benzema the day after the failure at the Euro. The dramas of selective memory…
Happy with his effect, DD resumed his seriousness to respond in more detail to our colleague. “He’s been in this group, he’s been around for a while, it’s been a very long time, with the ability that he has, in his register, that makes him a striker who, even when he’s not scoring – he had periods when he didn’t score – is very useful because you have to score others. A moment he’s been there, yes and no, if we may say so. Black-listed the day after the Euro, the former darling of the coach only owed his return at the last rally in September (and his call to the World Cup) to the injury of Karim Benzema.
Giroud goes from joker to indisputable titu
With the Madrid package and his premature departure on vacation, he was therefore propelled into the shoes of the holder at the forefront of the attack of the Blues, like four years earlier in Russia. “What a career! “, would have said the Stéphane Guy of the Canal era. And it is true that the trajectory of the Gire and the fact that its destiny has always been intimately linked to that of Karim Benzema would be a thesis subject in themselves.
Wednesday evening, during the first press conference of the Blues in Doha, he said that he was preparing as if he had to start each match and that he approached this World Cup like a kid, “as if it was the first “. He took it well, tomorrow it is he who will be responsible for sanctioning the “Socceroos” in the area. With in sight the record of Titi Henry, top scorer in the history of the France team with 51 pawns. Giroud is only two lengths behind the former Gunner and our little finger tells us that this 2022 World Cup is for him.