Didier Deschamps appeared in the press room at the Munich Football Arena and said he was dazzled by the lights. Well, it wasn’t by his team. France have reached the semi-final of the European Championship without having scored a goal of their own from open play in 480 minutes: their top marksman is own goal, on two, and the only other time they have found the net was a Kylian Mbappé penalty against Poland. But their coach says that if you find it boring, you can always go and watch something else.
The coach joked that a Swedish journalist must be “French really, disguised as Swedish” when it was put to him that, with the quality of players at his disposal, his France team are dull. “If you’re getting bored, watch another game,” he said. “You don’t have to watch – it’s fine. It’s a special Euros. It’s very difficult for everyone, with fewer goals. It hasn’t been the same as in the past, but we share the desire to make French men and women happy through the results we have been getting, especially in a period that has been hard for our country. But if the Swedish are getting bored, it doesn’t bother me much.”
Deschamps, who said he was “not trying to put the pressure” on Spain by declaring France’s opponents the best team at the tournament, also defended Mbappé. He insisted the Real Madrid forward had been affected by a back issue at the end of the season and the “huge shock” of sustaining a broken nose in the opening game against Austria. Mbappé had described wearing a protective mask as “an absolute horror”, and had asked to come off during the quarter-final with Portugal because he was tired.
“This is a new situation for him,” Deschamps said. “Having to wear a mask means that his field of vision changes. It was a huge shock to him, something he had to get used to. The swelling has gone down and every day the nose is stronger, but he will have to put up with it for a couple of weeks, even months.
“He played 110 minutes of football and we wanted to rest him as much as possible. Even if he is slightly off, he will be on the pitch [against Spain]. I am convinced that he is in the right head space, as are all my players. It was the end of the season, he had an issue with his back, then the nose – and he knew [that break] could have been the end of the road for him but he is still here. He had to digest that and get used to it. But I am convinced that tomorrow he will give 110%”
The midfielder Adrien Rabiot said neither Mbappé nor Antoine Greizmann was fully fit and that both were performing well below their usual level. He also said that there was “relief” at the result of the second round of French parliamentary elections, in which Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party finished third having won the first round.
Asked about Griezmann, Rabiot said: “It is a surprise because we know what he is capable of, what he did at the last World Cup. I don’t know how to explain the tough time he is going through now. We have high expectations when it comes to Antoine.
“How are we going to win without the best Antoine? We have a high-level team and it is a team sport. If someone is having a rough patch then, fine; we are there to support them. But of course it would be easier if we had the Antoine and the Kylian, which hasn’t been the case. Although we are maybe having trouble, we have reached the semi-final. Antoine’s and Kylian’s legs are not as fresh as they could be but we have 100% faith in them. We know they can change the game at any point. We will need them if we are to get to the final.”
Rabiot said of the elections: “We didn’t watch together. We got back from training, had dinner at 8.15pm and then everyone went to their own rooms. We were concerned about the results of the elections and we have other things on our minds as well but it is not something we mentioned. Some players have spoken on social media but we have not talked about it collectively. A lot of people felt relief after the result.
“I have always said that sport and politics don’t always go well together. We have a semi-final to play and I think we needed to put the politics to one side. We told people to vote, because democracy would decide. There were many who voted – it was the highest turnout. We leave the analysis to those that are good at it. I am a footballer. A good thing or a bad thing? I don’t know. Let’s see what the future holds.”
