This is the last World Cup before the next format, in four years, where Fifa invites 48 teams (against 32 this time), introduces a Round of 16 and dreams of banning draws (penalties from hens). In short: the World will dismiss, after 2022, the bouncers at its door to let as many nations as possible pass. Nostalgics mourn the end of excellence, Africa rejoices in the removal of locks – it is so badly off with its 5 places. The draw? A moment of expertise, where we decree months before the competition who are the strong and the weaklings. Before realizing, the day the first matches begin, that clairvoyance in football is like riding on an icy road in holey slippers. In short: mind-blowing gymnastics.
It only takes a trifle for a crash, the actors repeat, especially when they are preparing in isolation. A misunderstanding on the armchairs of a hotel, between two players, can contaminate all the others and blow up a well-oiled machine. Like two words in a captain’s chat, slipped in at the right time, with the right tone and the right gestures, can transcend eleven presumed minuses. The France team was delighted in 2018 to take on Australia and Peru. Have you seen the matches? Yes ? With a few drops of talent, the Blues stalled dry.
And 2002? France arrived bodybuilder, muscles copiously spread, with their belts of world and European champions. In the opening match, they lost 1-0 against Senegal, which the talkative pundit on the day of the draw had deemed quaint, exotic and limited. In Qatar, the Blues will be battling Denmark, Tunisia and therefore… the United Arab Emirates, Australia or Peru, three selections who are still playing their skin in the play-offs.
Denmark
The cliché. A nice team, capable of saving lives.
Reality. Semi-finalists of a recent European championship where they had the pleasure of receiving their three opponents from the first round, goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and others had left the competition with an aura of martyrdom: a scandalous penalty whistled by the referee Dutchman Danny Makkelie had sent the English to the final (2-1) at their expense, a way of saying that the surge of sympathy enjoyed by the Nordics since the serious discomfort of their best element, Christian Eriksen, against the Finns when they entered in the competition (0-1), no longer weighed very heavily, at this stage, faced with the cold realities of a Euro burst everywhere that the British had the mission to gather for the photo.
Remains a strong and homogeneous team in all its lines, fairly equal from one competition to another, sending itself to a match with the joyful good nature of a Saturday night outing and, as such, difficult to maneuver, even if the individual quality is always lacking in fine. The last Euro did not change the lives of Danish internationals, still in clubs located between two waters (Sampdoria de Genoa in Italy for Mikkel Damsgaard, Sevilla FC in Spain for Thomas Delaney, OGC Nice for Kasper Dolberg, the Leicester FC in England for Jannik Vestergaard…), which, basically, plays for them: the rhinestones and the glory that there is to take are on the international tournaments, where those who rubbed shoulders in the Danish selections of young people before running around Europe find themselves around a campfire, telling each other stories that only have meaning for themselves. Yesterday as in Qatar this fall, it makes a team.
Tunisia
The cliché. The minimalist game in the small days (we park a bus without even finishing the slot) and the shiny padlock in the big ones (we disgust and we sting without pity). Except that the little days have been piling up for a few months. Tunisia would therefore be the good draw par excellence because its number 1 asset is Wahbi Khazri, striker from Saint-Etienne, struggling not to go down. And because his last African Cup dates back to 2004. It will be eighteen and a half years.
Reality. Tunisia were given for dead at the last African Cup and Nigeria brandished as seductive favorites – a world class. What happened when they met in the round of 16? The selection all dressed in red and white put the big padlock and slipped a goal on the sly. 1-0, thank you, goodbye. The big knocked down, Tunisia got the next round… by Burkina Faso. This is the recent history of this selection. Do-it-yourself, upon do-it-yourself, which creates a few exploits and a lot of disappointment. What if, by the World Cup, DIY stops? Eight months is a long time.
The local championship, once the most powerful in Africa, has collapsed, like the country’s economy and the nascent democracy. It no longer produces artists, simply disciplined and diligent guys. Nevertheless, young dual nationals (in France, Denmark, England) can provide extra breath, legs and inspiration. Hannibal Mejbri, 18, a versatile midfielder and presented as a nugget at Manchester United, is one of the selection’s jokers. Whose boss, Youssef Msakni, playmaker capable of strokes of genius (when he has the legs), will play at home – he has been playing for more than a decade in Qatar.
Tunisia qualified by locking the way in a double turn and by throwing the key in a bottomless hole: 1-0 to go against Mali, 0-0 on the return, a strike here, a counter- attack there which does not even go to the end. The environment, his strong point, was ruthless; the completely invisible attack. But the case was assumed from the point of view of the technical staff and the federation. Given the context in Tunisia (where few things still hold), we had to go there at all costs. Then, once this formality is over, there is some time to think about a plan.
Peru, Australia or United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, the worst hot. If Fifa allows them to play Emirati-owned Manchester City instead of the selection – Fifa can do anything. Other than that, the UAE barely passed the first round of the Arab Cup last fall, showing a very worrying level – after some interesting years.
Peru, the best hot. This is perhaps the most interesting test of the hen. Ball teasers (not all of them, but still), who don’t give any gifts and who would therefore come out of the qualifications of the South American zone, from which Colombia did not know how to get out (among others and this is not not nothing). Ball teasers (again) who annoyed the Blues four years ago. Not for the pleasure of watching the opponent ask a thousand questions, but to win. These matches are good when a team like France comes to steal the trophy. They offer just about every possible puzzle in miniature, which is a golden preparation for the big puzzles. Unless Australia qualify – what we will know once the play-offs are over in June.