Desailly cautious of French favourites classification

Former French captain, World Cup, European Championship and two-time UEFA Champions League winner Marcel Desailly is wary of the favourable odds tagged onto his country as they prepare to host Euro 2016 but has said he is confident the side can handle the pressure on home soil as the tournament kicks off less than a week’s time versus Romania on June 10.

The defender, who retired from international football in 2004, was capped 116 times for his country and was an integral member of the iconic French side which won the World Cup on home soil in 1998 before going one better and claiming a historic double two years later at Euro 2000.

Desailly took the armband following the retirement of current national team manager Didier Deschamps and subsequently led his country to two Confederation Cup victories in 2001 and 2003, acting as his nation’s record cap holder until the equally outstanding Lilian Thuram took the accolade in 2006.

Generations of French national teams have attempted to match the heights achieved by the side led by Zinedine Zidane, Desailly, Laurent Blanc and Deschamps, with disappointments at Euro 2008 and Euro 2012 as well as the World Cup in Brazil two years ago only further whetting the appetite for an achievable glory this time around.

Euro 2016 offers the new and latest window of hope for the nation, with a new generation packed to the rafters with young, talented footballers inclusive of Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann, Anthony Martial and N'golo Kante picked as many favourites ahead of current holders Spain and World Cup winners Germany in order to dispel underwhelming performances at international tournaments since the turn of the millennium and bring the European Championship home.

“You need a bit of luck”, Desailly remarks. “(It depends) on who are you going to meet in the round of sixteen. From there you will see in terms of how the team has behaved, what the tactical setup was.”

Behavior has been a sticking point for France in recent years. The antics of Raymond Domenech's side in South Africa six years ago was added to this year by further controversies surrounding Karim Benzema and Mathieu Valbuena as well as the omission of Hatem Ben Arfa which saw Eric Cantona express a view that the selection of French national squad is based on race and ethnicity. All of this pushing distance between the team and its supporters.

But do such controversies distract players from football?

“The perception that we have from the media is different from the one the players have from the inside”, Desailly said. “They are well protected. It does not affect them like it affects us. When you are a player you are a little bit selfish.”

“Dominich, 2010 – a new generation, lots of hope after the World Cup final in 2006. (2010) was terrible for the team’s image. Laurent Blanc in 2012 took more or less the same generation with Nasri, Ribery and all of the others.

“That generation was good on the field but the behavior was different. Didier (Deschamp) brought some hope. Hope for the World Cup in 2014. And you can feel it, players like Varane and Pogba and Matuidi coming through. You believe that it is possible.

“We have talent. This team is probably better than our generation. Remove Zidane from my squad and study the whole team – they are probably better than us. They have experience so the pressure that they are going to get… they will be able to deliver.”

High praise. But how does this side compare to that of 1998 and 2000?

“They are better. Tactically, physically. We were probably more leaders but you need time to become a leader. When you take us after the World Cup in 1994, a new generation came around in 1995; Djorkaeff, Deschamp, Desailly, Blanc, Zidane.

“We did not have that leadership or maturity that we built up afterwards. So this team has the potential, they have the experience, they have the talent technically, mentally they have to build up but we will see this throughout the competition.”

The build-up to Euro 2016 has been marred by the threat of potential terrorist attacks at games following the attacks on Paris in November 2015 which saw three explosions take place outside the Stade de France, resulting in four deaths.

France has been on security lockdown since, with Desailly remarking that security measures put in place should ensure an enjoyable competition should be had by all involved.

“The government is aware of the security aspect. It’s not going to be easy to control everything but they have put in some good strategic ideas to control the fan zones, all around the stadium, inside the stadium, to make sure that the people are safe.

“It can happen in any European country in the world. All of the attention is on security in order to have a great Euros.”

The 47-year-old holds manager Deschamps’ set-up to question however, with uncertainty over formation and personnel still in the air with less than a week before they take on Romania next Friday.

“We are not there. Griezmann is not back so we don’t know yet. All of (France’s) offensive animation is around him and he is not there. So Didier has to decide if he is comfortable with Giroud or Gignac, or is it Payet or is it Coman? What is the system: 4-4-3 or 4-4-2? We don’t know.

“Lassana Diarra is out of the (midfield) three. Can Schneiderlin be that holding midfielder? N’Golo Kante has no previous (international) experience. He had a great season and has come from no-where. So there are lots of questions.

“For us, we are waiting for this week in Austria because we have a friendly game and from there we can start to build up hope, or, close our eyes on a potential victory.”

Marcel Desailly was speaking as an ambassador for Carlsberg to celebrate the beginning of UEFA Euro 2016 and as part of Carlsberg’s Fan Revolution campaign, all part of their commitment to ‘do it better for the fans’.