France under cool customer Deschamps look like title contenders

KAZAN, Russia: France have gone through a major development under Didier Deschamps and the coach has Les Bleus as one of the World Cup title contenders in Russia – thanks in large part to his personal management skills.

“Didier deserves the deepest respect,” French federation president Noel Le Graet said of the coach, who won the World Cup as captain in 1998.

Back then he was the extended arm of coach Aime Jacquet, and now the 49-yearold Deschamps is hoping to guide France to their second world title – after winning the trophy in Paris.

The Euro 2016 runners-up start their campaign today against Australia in Group C in Kazan. And Deschamps has already had to deal with some issues in Russia.

He had the fortitude to select eight players who were 24 years or younger, including the 22-year-old defenders Lucas Hernandez and Benjamin Pavard and 19-year-old striker Kylian Mbappe.

“It was not easy to call the young players who revealed themselves just a year ago. It was not entirely planned,” Le Graet said.

“When you see Mbappe, who answers your questions with an improbable maturity at 19 years, amazing. Quite frankly, [the youth] is more of an advantage.”

While dealing with youthful inexperience, there have been other distractions for Deschamps to drudge through.

For one there is the everentertaining Paul Pogba, who said in the build-up to the World Cup: “I would like to hold the reins (of the national team) in my hands.”

Deschamps, ever the cool customer, countered with: “Paul can do everything, but Paul cannot do everything at the same time.”

And Deschamps’ star striker Antoine Griezmann caused his own rumblings in Russia – firstly not answering questions about where he would play next season and then late Thursday taking to the Spanish pay-tv channel Movistar to finally announce he would stay with Atletico Madrid.

Deschamps also has a couple of injury issues to figure out with Mbappe, Djibril Sidibe and Samuel Umtiti and all fighting knocks as today quickly approached.

Le Graet was pleasantly surprised with the collective attitude of the team.

“I am very confident.

Being with them during the preparation matches, I know they are very supportive. It is rare to have such a united group,” he said.

While France can dream of winning the title, Australia are just looking for a solid start to their fifth World Cup appearance after finishing their preparations with a 4-0 win over Czech Republic and a 2-1 victory against Hungary.

“Just playing 90 minutes of defence doesn’t make any sense. We won’t have any chance and the pressure will be too great,” Australian coach Bert van Marwijk said.

Australia have advanced from the group stage just once – in 2006. And only four Socceroos – Mile Jedinak, Tim Cahill, Robbie Kruse and Mat Leckie – remain from the 2014 team.

Cahill will be looking to make World Cup history. The 38-year-old has scored five of Australia’s 11 goals in finals history, and if he can net a sixth he would become just the fourth player to score in four consecutive World Cups – alongside Pele, Uwe Seeler and Miroslav Klose.

“That would mean a lot to me,” Cahill said.

“It is the dream of every kid. I would love to belong to that club as an Australian.”

Cahill and the rest of Australia are definitely hoping things turn out better than their last meeting with France – a 6-0 thrashing in a 2013 friendly in Paris ahead of the 2014 World Cup. – DPA