Five short months before the World Cup, France is in full doubt after this international break. If they are still among the favorites to win a third World Cup in Qatar, the Blues will quickly have to leave behind them this rally in June punctuated by two defeats and two draws, ending hopes for a second title in the Nations League.
In France, the level displayed worries the press a few months before the World Cup.
“Soccer Boiled”
For L’Equipe, the troops of Didier Deschamps have “completely missed their last big gathering before the World Cup”. The sports daily points to a lack of juice and ideas, headlining with a simple “football stew”.
“Fiasco”, “calamitous campaign”
RMC Sport is not tender with its national team following the narrow defeat at the Stade de France. Our colleagues describe as “fiasco“this truce of the month of June.”calamitous campaign”, “a fortnight placed under the sign of arduousness” are other terms chosen by our colleagues to illustrate the performances of the players of Didier Deschamps who appeared “winded and clueless“. Next objective for the French team? “Try to stay in Ligue A at the start of the school year”.
“Helplessness Four”
This is the title chosen by So Foot to sum up this sad month of June. The sports media also points to a dependency Mbappé advocated by Didier Deschamps. “We saw the France team spin the ball without succeeding in electrifying the inside of the game and with no other objective than to wait for the individual feat of an agitated Kylian Mbappé, but not very successful against a Josip Stanišić full speed”. Our colleagues also return to an evening marked by “gloom and whistles” before concluding. “The Blues go on vacation with headaches”.
“They had saved the worst for the end”
“It was time to end“, Eurosport is also worried after the setback suffered by the world champions. The fault of an overly busy end of the season? “Burnt players, fluctuating systems and four games without a win, France has been treading water five months before the World Cup“. Seeing the Nations League draw (Croatia, Austria and Denmark), our neighbors should logically have reached the Final Four to try to defend their title acquired last year. “Four matches against Croatia (twice), Denmark and Austria = zero wins and a Final Four that is already flying away. We would have told you that during the Nations League draw, you didn’t wouldn’t have believed it. And neither did I.”, underlines Eurosport, before concluding. “It was time for them to go on vacation. See you in September“.
Next September, the Blues will receive Austria before going to Denmark to conclude this group stage of the Nations League. A competition to forget as soon as possible before the big Qatari meeting.
