Special Envoy to Faro
You just have to set foot in Faro, under the sun and the heat of this beautiful region of the Algarve with its many palm trees, its port, its beaches and the few tourists already there to realize that the holidays would be good to everybody. But for the Blues like their followers, the time for vacation has not (yet) come and if the last trip of the season offers a look of a class version of the sea, the truth is quite different.
In an almost empty Estadio do Algarve (3,000 spectators expected for a capacity of 19,000 seats) and theater of the forced relocation of Gibraltar due to an unsuitable national stadium, facing a formation of the 5th world division, with a group France exhausted by an extended season that doesn’t like its June sequences in odd years, everything comes together to believe you’re already on the beach, basking in the pill and sipping your cocktail while watching the summer soap operas. Big mistake that the men of Didier Deschamps must not commit.
On the summer soap opera side, Kylian Mbappé has already hit hard by vampirizing the news this week with the non-activation of his contract extension at Paris SG, causing shocks throughout Europe. At 24, the captain of the vice-world champions does not seem to take umbrage, impervious to pressure and if he had wanted a little peace of mind with the selection, he still had to send the famous letter to his club for a week. later, once the international streak is complete.
But in club as in selection, everything is done not to offend the French genius, necessarily eagerly awaited Friday evening against the 201st nation in the world in the FIFA rankings, and everyone argues internally that nothing disturbs the best of the French championship. “He loves being the center of attention, and everything slips on him. There is no annoyance or the slightest source of tension, “we breathe within the selection. In an enclosure of Faro deserted by the Gibraltarians and the Portuguese, but which will have 1200 French supporters, the hour must be serious and rigorous for the French. Even with the blue jersey, it is sometimes difficult for elements accustomed to playing the Champions League every week in volcanic atmospheres to motivate themselves to anonymously face an opponent who notably includes the most “grandpa” of players from the Old Continent. , Lee Henry Casciaro, soon to be 42, striker and … navy policeman with the Gibraltar Ministry of Defense two days a week. This is also the charm of the Euro qualifiers. It is up to the 2018 world champions to negotiate this somewhat outdated and folkloric meeting with a taste of the holidays in order to glimpse the next Euro (June 14-July 14) even a little closer.
Leaders of Group B, Deschamps’ men have two shots to give against Gibraltar on Friday in the Portuguese furnace and on a pitch of poor quality, heat obliges, and Monday against Greece (8:45 p.m.) in a Stade de France filled with brim. Afterwards, it will (finally) be time to put on flip flops and a bathing suit.
