This Croatia-France will inform us, basically, about the real reason for this gathering in June.
For the Blues, defeated Friday at the Stade de France against Denmark (1-2), it is a question of bouncing back and taking the first points in this new League of Nations of which they are the title holders.
With the five players unavailable and the rotation that Didier Deschamps wants to perform, the Tricolores will present themselves this Monday on the lawn of Split in an old-fashioned flared stadium, dominated on its left by the mountains, on its right by the bars of 'building, with the face of an A team'.
"As I told you before the rally, one of the objectives of this series of four games is to give the players some playing time", explains the coach, still terribly marked by the family mourning which struck him at the start. from last week.
“Accident or not, we did some good things against Denmark”
Hence this question: are the Blues coming to win or looking for men with a second wind, capable of holding out until the 2022 World Cup (November 21 - December 18).
Both, would answer the national coach.
He said it another way in a press conference.
"It's a setback.
Now, accident or not, we did some good things against Denmark.
After a defeat, we want to reverse the trend.
Only, his proteges may not have the legs or the head for that at the moment.
The mental and sporting load of the end of the season is sometimes opposed to competitiveness.
Historically, the month of June escapes their intimate setting except at the time of the tournaments even if in 2021, they continued to be bad and absent from themselves at the onset of summer and during the Euro.
So maybe it's something else going on in Split where the Blues have never played.
They come to broaden the spectrum of their potential when the usual holders can no longer offer what they usually give.
Read alsoCroatia-France: strongly overhauled Blues with Ben Yedder in attack
It is this field of possibilities that this reshuffle opens up when the 2018 World Cup was won only fourteen steps away, the eleven type plus Corentin Tolisso, Nabil Fekir, Steven Nzonzi – a feat in the feat.
From Adrien Rabiot to Wissam Ben Yedder via Mattéo Guendouzi or Christopher Nkunku, it is the next generation, competition and the rebound, inevitably, which is at stake. A second defeat in a row, an unprecedented sequence for seven years, would bring doubt home.
It wouldn't make a summer hit.
