Let’s not shy away from the pleasure of approaching Euro 2021 in the position of ultra favorite.
This has not happened so often in history.
The oldest still remember the long hard years of French football.
Until 1980, the teenagers who were passionate about football that we were had to be content with the spectacle offered by others to have fun.
In Europe, while Italy, Germany, England or even the USSR monopolized the places in the final and the titles, the Blues vegetated, chained the disappointments.
A first flash had announced the revival: the epic of Rocheteau's greens beaten in the final of the Champions Clubs Cup (the ancestor of the Champions League) by Bayern Munich in 1976. Then the genius of Michel Platini had entered into scene. Around him, a first team had touched the summits. After the cult defeat of Seville against the Germans at the 1982 World Cup, France won its Euro in 1984. A little later, the Zidane generation then made us dream by winning, in quick succession, the Cup. world and the Euro in 1998 and 2000. With the victory of 2018 and the emergence of the Mbappé phenomenon, the Blues took on another dimension. A great coach, players who all play in the biggest clubs in the world, from Pogba to Griezmann via Kanté and Lloris: on paper,they start out as winners.
Of course, in the past, this position has sometimes played tricks on French athletes. Euro 2021 is obviously not won in advance. Other nations like England or Belgium are also favored by bookmakers. They will not be easy to beat. No more than the Germans and the Portuguese we face in the preliminary round. Appropriately reinforced by the ban Benzema, never has a French team approached an international competition with so many advantages. Today's teens are very lucky.