Here we go again, Denmark… As in 98, as in 2022 and more recently as in 2018, the French team will once again cross paths with Danish Dynamite, an old acquaintance who has severely hurt us during our last two confrontations. The first at the Stade de France last June, where the Blues had dragged out their sentence despite a masterpiece by the late Benzema, the second a few weeks ago, at the end of September, with a fine defeat (2-0) at the key. At a press conference the day before the match, Friday, Didier Deschamps didn’t hesitate to say that the tall blonds with colored shoes gave us “misfortunes, a lot of misery”.
“This Danish team is underrated compared to its real value,” he continued. The idea is to ensure that we reverse the trend, without going so far as to talk about revenge. They know us, we know them, there was a photograph in June which was different from that of September and there will be another tomorrow, because the situation of the two teams is not necessarily the same today. Everything that happened before serves us but also serves this Danish team which has the ability to change the system in all matches and that can lead to different difficulties. »
Everything but not France-Denmark 2018, please
The Danes’ draw against Tunisia and the difficulties they experienced in this first match are all avenues for Didier Deschamps and his staff as they approach Saturday’s match. Only here, trapped from the start and having taken only one point, Christian Eriksen and his team have no choice but to win against the Blues to avoid unnecessary fears in this group. But the Blues are warned and do not intend to go there by rolling mechanics.
“It’s another competition, but (their last two victories against the Blues), it somewhat situates the level of Denmark, a very competitive team which is capable of challenging the best, admitted Hugo Lloris from the conference center of Doha. We don’t need any extra motivation at this stage of the competition, we are aware of the importance of tomorrow’s match. When we look at what has been done between Tunisia and Denmark, all the teams are ready tactically, physically, there are great battles and we have to be ready. »
We just cross our fingers not to witness the same “purge” as in Russia four years ago. It was a third pool match, with fewer stakes, but we prefer to warn anyway: football would not forgive you, gentlemen.