France aims for historic win

MARSEILLE, France — France coach Didier Deschamps has challenged his players to write themselves into the history of French football on Thursday by beating Germany in their European Championship semifinal.

France has not won a trophy since Euro 2000 and is bidding to reach the final of a major competition for the first time in a decade.

“We have a new page to write. The players can write it,” Deschamps said Wednesday at a pre-match news conference. “It’s blank now. We have to fill it tomorrow. “

Germany has reached at least the semifinals in the past five tournaments, losing the Euro 2008 final and winning the 2014 World Cup.

“We can’t match Germany in terms of their experience, the number of caps, the number of semifinals and finals they’ve been in,” Deschamps said. “But we’re going to give it our best shot. … We have the ability to create danger.”

France had been waiting a long time for such an opportunity. After losing the 2006 World Cup final to Italy on penalties, which brought the curtain down on Zinedine Zidane’s glory era, Les Bleus went into freefall, failing to win a game at Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup.

Quarterfinal appearances at Euro 2012 and the 2014 World Cup — where it lost 1-0 to Germany — somewhat restored France’s reputation. But victory against Germany would definitively close the chapter on an often traumatic era for French football.

Germany captain Bastian Schweinsteiger will lead his side after recovering from a knock to his injury-prone right knee.

“He has the physical conditioning and strength to play from the beginning,” Germany coach Joachim Loew said. “His experience is hugely important in such a cauldron.”

The 31-year-old Schweinsteiger strained a ligament in his knee in Saturday’s quarterfinal win over Italy, but came through Wednesday’s training session in Evian-les-Bains without any problems, before the squad left its tournament base for Marseille.