Les Bleus face 'challenging' Germany in Nations League clash
The French national football team is getting ready to play its first match since winning the World Cup trophy in Russia in June, facing Germany in Munich on Thursday evening. Germany were eliminated in the group stage of the world cup, and will have something to prove.
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France is riding high on its World Cup win, but coach Didier Deschamps, says the game will still be difficult: “The title needs to become a strength, something to give us confidence, and something to depend on and push us,” he told reporters.
Germany will pose a challenge.
“We have always had a challenge when playing the German team. It’s not because they had a difficult World Cup that this will be an easy game for us,” he said. “But we do have the advantage, with the title, of having a lot of confidence. And we need to not forget how we got there, and not be complacent.”
Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane will captain France, since goalkeeper Hugo Lloris is injured, as is Marseille's Steve Mandanda.
Nations League
The match is the first of theUEFA Nations league, football’s newest competition, which involves all 55 European national teams and will result in a championship tournament next June.
The league has teams playing in four levels, Leagues A-D, from this week through November. The June 2019 championship will be a final four for the winners of League A.
There will be playoffs the next year, in March 2020, in all four levels, in order to fill the last four qualifying spots in the Euro 2020. This means that at least one League D team, the lowest-ranked on the continent, will qualify.
The idea behind this system is that all teams get something: Top teams get to play each other; middle-ranked teams have the opportunity to play games in which they can win; and lower-ranked teams have a chance to get into the major tournaments.
Kick-off for the France-Germany match is at 20h45.
On Saturday England faces Spain, on Monday Portugal plays Italy, and Spain takes on Croatia on Tuesday.
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