Axel May
This Friday evening, the XV of France faces Italy for the last group match of Group A at 9 p.m. A meeting to follow live and in full on Europe 1. Should the Blues be worried? Even without Antoine Dupont, they start as favorites.
This is not the time to give up for the XV of France. This Friday evening, at Groupama Stadium in Lyon, the Blues have no choice. They must win against Italy in the last group match and secure a place in the quarter-finals. Even without Antoine Dupont still convalescing, the French are arch favorites.
An increasingly efficient team
If we just look at the statistics, Italy is clearly not the favorite. They have lost 44 of the 47 matches against France since their first meeting in 1937, but they still remain a team which has posed problems for the Blues in recent years. “I remember my first selection against Italy, we almost lost,” recalls center Jonathan Danty. “Italy has been progressing for three years on the international scene. I think that also goes with their development. They want to achieve results against the France team.”
Italy revenge after its defeat against the All Blacks?
Italians who, however, took a correction a week ago against New Zealand, and to get back into working order, they wrote down their negative thoughts on pieces of paper. “At the start of the week, we wrote down what happened in the match, what we thought we could have done better, what we thought went wrong,” says Pietro Ceccarelli. “We didn’t tell anyone about it and we threw the papers in the fire to put this match behind us a little bit.”
The French have been warned, it is the Italians who are piqued and vengeful who will appear on the pitch this Friday evening.