Last match of the year for the France team in Greece this Tuesday (8:45 p.m.). A match without stakes? “We are not going to play tomorrow so as not to win,” insists Didier Deschamps, eager to see the world vice-champions “do the best possible qualifying phase.” “We are flawless, and we want to stay like that,” he says again. Indeed, the Blues have won their seven matches in the Euro 2024 qualifiers. They have obviously already qualified for the European Championship for a while, and even already assured of finishing at the top of their group. In these conditions, it is difficult to find real motivations before approaching this meeting in Athens. Moreover, the coach does not hide that “it will not be the same team” in Greece as against Gibraltar (14-0) on Saturday in Nice.
Ultimately, the main motivation is still to finish at the top of the Fifa rankings. And it is possible. Obviously, that brings nothing in reality, other than the prestige of finishing in first place. But when you’re a competitor at heart, it’s not nothing. The proof with Saturday’s 14-0. Nobody forced Kylian Mbappé to push, push and push again to score as many goals as possible. Yet they did it. “There are seven of us, there is no limit, I want the same application from everyone. The record is 10, you can even break it! Don’t slow down guys!”, “DD” had said to his players during half-time, at 7-0. Message received, we saw it clearly.
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“From the moment we were already qualified, we had to be seeded in relation to our standing and in particular a world ranking which could evolve given the team in front of us,” added Deschamps, after the card against Gibraltar. The team ahead of the Blues is of course Argentina, the reigning world champion. Except that the Argentinians lost to Uruguay (0-2) during their last outing. Which leaves the door open to France, which has only finished at the top of the FIFA rankings once, that was in 2001.
For its last match in 2023, the Albiceleste faces its Brazilian rival on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday (1h30), a few hours after Greece-France, on behalf of the qualifications for the 2026 World Cup. But the result of the Argentina shock -Brazil may not matter. Clearly, if the Blues win in Athens, they will be assured of first place in the Fifa rankings. Otherwise, they will have to achieve at least the same result as Leo Messi and others. Remember that Greece is already out of the running for the Euro. “I have motivation every time I enter the field,” says Adrien Rabiot. And we have challenges, challenges that we set for ourselves, in particular finishing with the maximum points in these qualifications. If we do better than Argentina against Brazil, we end the year at the top of the Fifa rankings. These are objectives that we have in mind and this can help us.” Chick?