The deputy of Didier Deschamps answered questions from journalists after the loss of the Blues against Denmark (1-2).
At the Stade de France
His analysis after the defeat of the Blues
“First there is the value of the opponent, I was not surprised by the Danes’ match. From what I had observed, it was a structured team, strong in recovering the ball, capable of hurting offensively. It’s a shame after the superb action of Karim (Benzema, scorer in the 51st minute), not to keep this result and even to amplify it with the shot on the post (by Kanté at the end of the game). Afterwards we had an alignment problem (on Cornelius’ 1-2 goal) and the Danes showed that they also knew how to score goals. »
The lack of physical freshness, reason n°1 of the setback?
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“I’m not going to look for an excuse, but the observation is real. We have players who have played a lot and obviously we lacked physical freshness at times. We have a sparkling team but it needs freshness and spring to play at its best. I’m not just talking about the attackers… This applies to the whole group. The calendar is like this, we have 4 matches in 11 days, that’s football. We were on a very strong series of matches won (7), then we will know on Monday whether it is a setback or not. We have to digest this defeat and it should lead us to prepare even better for the future. »
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The state of health of Mbappé and Varane, out injured against Denmark
“Kylian has a knee problem, he is with the doctor and will have tests (the press conference took place at 11:30 p.m. this Friday). I do not know more. Raphaël Varane, it’s a muscular problem, behind the thigh. Really I don’t know any more, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you. We got to the locker room, I didn’t have time to talk to the doctor. Kylian told me he couldn’t continue at half-time, we had to take no risks. (On the game against Croatia on Monday) It seems fair for them to play in 3 days. »
The absence of Deschamps on Friday evening and his return with the Blues
“When the boss is not there, you have to assume, talk to the players, make team choices and talk, that’s new. In the end, it is always he who makes the final decision. He will be back tomorrow (Saturday) with us. For him it was an extremely painful day because it was the funeral (of his dad). I got it after the match, very quickly and obviously we had discussed a lot before. I did what I could in relation to his pain to disturb him as little as possible. »