Jean-François Pérès and Cyrille de la Morinerie / Photo credit: Franck Fife
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12:57 p.m., June 19, 2023
The French football team faces Greece, this Monday, June 19, at the Stade de France, as part of the fourth day of the Euro-2024 qualifiers. This game, the last of the season, will be sold out. The Blues will have to avoid many pitfalls, against Greece, before enjoying a well-deserved vacation.
A trap game
The first pitfall will simply be mental and physical fatigue. The Blues played ten months almost without stopping, with a World Cup in the middle of winter. Some have played more than 60 matches since last August and admit, in private, that they are starting to stick out their tongues. Conversely, there is Antoine Griezmann, bulimic for training and matches. “I will have to get out of the selection. I like the selection too much. I like the France team too much, even if I am in pain somewhere. I want to train. I want to be with my teammates, I I have the legs to run and play matches again and again,” said the Atletico Madrid player.
A Greece team in great shape
The Blues and the 80,000 spectators at the Stade de France will need a Griezmann in great shape, around captain Kylian Mbappé. The adversary will be more formidable than Gibraltar. Under the leadership of the Uruguayan Gustavo Poyet, former coach of Bordeaux, Greece has just beaten Ireland. They are second in the group and have an excellent goalkeeper and two attackers who shine in the Netherlands.
A coach that Didier Deschamps knows well
A coach that Didier Deschamps knows well. The coach of the Blues is therefore particularly suspicious, as he explained at a press conference. “They’re a very good team, obviously with what Gustavo Poyet can bring. It’s really at a very good level. I knew that for having seen them against Ireland on Friday and they did it again, and they logically won.”
A special match also for Gustavo Poyet, who will find Didier Deschamps, with whom he played in England. “It’s going to be very special to be with Didier on the other side. We’ve been together for a year at Chelsea, so we know our possibility. It’s not a normal game, it’s really difficult but we’re going to do it. play like that,” he confided to the microphone of Europe 1.
For the Blues, the objective is to end the year with a new victory, a fourth. The lawn will also be a determining factor during this meeting. His condition questions after the final of the Top 14 rugby contested this Saturday, June 17. This last game of the season is anything but a last day of leisure.