France battles the odds in bid for a third World Cup victory
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France coach Didier Deschamps knows that many football fans want Argentina to win Sunday’s World Cup final – just to give Lionel Messi the perfect send-off from the sport’s biggest tournament. In fact, Deschamps says he thinks some in France may be hoping for an Argentina victory, too.
“I’m fine being alone in the world – that doesn’t bother me,” he said with a smile.
It feels like Deschamps and his France team have been up against it from the start.
France started the World Cup with a deluge of injuries, with Karim Benzema, Christopher Nkunku and Presnel Kimpembe getting ruled out to join Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante on the sidelines.
It is finishing the tournament with France’s squad being further weakened by a virus that led to defender Dayot Upamecano and midfielder Adrien Rabiot missing the win over Morocco in the semifinals. Three more players – centre backs Raphael Varane and Ibrahima Konaté and winger Kingsley Coman – were absent from training on Friday, two days before the final.
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Deschamps is taking it all in his stride.
“We are doing our best to take precautions and adapt as necessary,” he said Saturday in his eve-of-final news conference.
“We are trying to live with it, without getting too far, getting too carried away. We’re just doing what is necessary.”
That could easily describe France’s path to the final.
In both the quarterfinals against England and the semifinals against Morocco, the French have come out strong to take a first-half lead and then been content to soak up pressure and play on the counterattack – a tactic that worked four years ago on the country’s run-up to the World Cup title.
But will that work against Argentina, with Messi in such scintillating form?
“Things always happen in a match for which you are…
