The date of December 18, 2022 continues to hurt the French. Finalists of the World Cup in Qatar, the Blues had failed to win a third star against Argentina. And yet, the hope was present until the very last minute but the French team had bowed on penalties against Albiceleste (3-3 Tab 4-2).
This meeting continues to haunt the spirits of the French, but also that of the players The French team present on the field like Raphaël Varane.
In the program “The Bridge” broadcast on YouTube, the former Madrid defender engaged in the meeting. He confides that the Blues have a share of responsibility in defeat because they did not show enough desire: “Me, what I felt was that we played a final … but that it was not the last match of your life. At the time, you must be transcended, you play a World Cup final. ”
A lack of “transcendence” according to Raphaël Varane
World champion with France in 2018, Raphaël Varane knows what the final of the biggest football competition represents. The experience lived, four years ago, could therefore have helped the Blues to win a third World Cup, and a second consecutive, however the Blues would have been the victim of the opposite effect.
To support his words, Raphaël Varane does not hesitate to compare the state of mind of the French team during the 2018 final (year of the coronation) and that of 2022: “ We played with the pressure of the event, but not transcended as in 2018. In 2018, in the approach of the match, you felt … We all talked before the meeting, we said to ourselves “This is the match of our life, there are no other options”. We didn't think about “if you ever lose”. No ! There were no other paths, it was “we win and that's it”. »»
A bitter defeat therefore for the player who retired international a few months after the back of France.
