After presenting the list of players called up for the Nations League matches against Italy and Belgium, Didier Deschamps spoke at the press conference: “We are starting a new cycle with these Nations League games. Michael did great things with Thierry Henry’s Olympic team and had done great things before despite injuries. By signing for Bayern he has become another category. He was an important element for Thierry and could have also been with us at the European Championships. He has great potential, he can play in different offensive roles even if he has a preference”.
The balance of Euro 2024: “Obviously it is important to take stock, and I always do that. We need to see what went well and what didn’t. We reached the semi-finals, we are not satisfied and we know it was a disappointment. These are problems to manage, we can always do better but we had injuries and also a bit of offensive “inefficiency” from some players who are usually dangerous and effective. We had defensive solidity but there was not the same response on the other side of the pitch. We are not satisfied but it was impossible to do more with this deficit”.
The challenge against Italy and the excellent exclusions: “It came out early but I didn’t watch the games because we didn’t face it. I will do it now. It remains a great national team, which has encountered some difficulties; I spoke about it with Spalletti, I would have liked to play in Turin instead of Milan. The exclusion of Benjamin Pavard it’s nothing definitive: in his club, Inter, there is competition. for him and Coman I didn’t make a speech related to their level in the European Championship. Adrien Rabiot he still has some time to find a team, he has some requests and he has to make a choice. I hope he’ll be there for the next matches, I don’t have a radical position. The Nations League must be used to evaluate everyone in view of the number 1 objective, which will be qualifying for the World Cup”.
Kone’s call-up: “We’ve been following him for a while, we like him for what he’s doing with his club but he could change teams by Friday.”
No rest for Mbappé: “I don’t know where you got this information from. I spoke to Kylian: what I can say is that there is always this problem of the calendar, with the new format of the Champions League that will be inaugurated after a big competition. He has always scored, it is his choice to be there”.