Qualifications for the 2026 World Cup could only begin in ten months for the France team, at least if it is invited to the Final Four of the Nations League next June. However, the Blues already seem focused on this World Cup in North America. This is the feeling of Bixente Lizarazu, for whom the recent Euro, ended for Didier Deschamps’ men with an elimination in the semi-final, must serve as a basis.
“The Blues must use their experience as semi-finalists of the last Euro and the flaws observed during this tournament as we were able to do in 1996 after our elimination against the Czech Republic at the same stage of this competition, he confided in the columns of The Team. All things considered, I have the feeling that an interesting parallel can be drawn between these two teams twenty-eight years apart. »
Aimé Jacquet, the visionary
And the former Bordeaux player highlights the role played by Aimé Jacquet. “He followed a strategy which consisted of ensuring an intelligent intergenerational transition by using a major tournament to prepare the youngest for the next tournament. Euro 96 was to serve as a working ground for the 98 World Cup. he explained. A way of doing things praised in the past by many of its former players.
“The Euro 1996 laboratory was, at all levels, the best preparation for the 1998 World Cup. I was not there, but I think that the group was surely in a better physical and psychological condition to go to the end »Vincent Guérin confided to So Foot when remembering Euro 1996. Same story in the mouth of Christian Karembeu. “We would never have been world champions without Euro 1996. It was a founding experience for the group and Aimé Jacquet knew how to use it not only during the World Cup which was to follow but also when building his team. band. He was visionary. »
