This would become quite a curse: the French team which begins the Euro year with a defeat does not bode well except a disaster at the European Nations Championship…
Didier Deschamps' players do not want to worry too much, but the defeat of the French team against Germany (0-2), Saturday evening in a friendly match at Groupama Stadium (in the suburbs of Lyon), makes much trouble. The Blues were outclassed, they came across a less talented Mannschaft of Julian Nagelsmann but better prepared and clearly more tactically ambitious. What a football lesson!
The result is all the more worrying because when France lost its first match of the calendar year before playing in a Euro, it was… eliminated in the first round during the European Nations Championship a few months later! France began 1992 with a 2-0 defeat in England and 2008 with a setback in Spain (1-0). For two real disasters during the Euro which followed.
Deschamps after Platini and Domenech?
At Euro 92 in Sweden, France under coach Michel Platini (with future 98 world champions Laurent Blanc, Didier Deschamps and Emmanuel Petit, as well as the attacking duo Jean-Pierre Papin-Eric Cantona) finished third in their group after draws against Sweden (1-1) and England (0-0) then a defeat against the future winner, Denmark (2-1).
Euro 2008 for Raymond Domenech's selection was scandalous. With Franck Ribéry, Nicolas Anelka and Karim Benzema in front, France started with a 0-0 against Romania before sinking against the Netherlands (4-1) and Italy (0-2). The FFF, under the leadership of a certain Noël Le Graët, had maintained the coach, who had distinguished himself by proposing to his partner at the time, Estelle Denis.
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