The Azerbaijan national team played its next match in the DÇ-2026 qualifying round today. Our team, which is in Group D, was a guest of the French national team in Paris. The match ended with a 3:0 victory for the home team. Sport24.az reports that after the match, the head coach of the French national team, Didier Deschamps, answered journalists' questions at the press conference:
- Are you satisfied with what you saw in the first half?
- We got the result we wanted. But no, I wasn't satisfied. There was fatigue in the team. There was little verticality in the movement of the ball. We had difficulty trying to do what we wanted. I told the players that they need to play intensely. We didn't do it enough. We couldn't challenge the opponent. Because fatigue was felt. I'm not going to jump to the skies with joy. We could have scored more goals.
- What would you say about Tovan's goal?
- It's good for us and for him. It's a comeback for himself. He has the quality to score. If the ball comes to his foot, he will try to score. I'm glad he was able to score.
- What's the news about Kilian Mbappe's leg problem? Because he was playing the role of a leader...
- He moves his legs very fast. As soon as he touches the ball, he accelerates. He is a leader and a captain. His condition is good. His role as captain is to lead the team. He has a problem with his leg. Unfortunately, he took the blow from the same place. He was in a lot of pain.
- Can lessons be learned from such matches?
- It is always necessary to learn lessons. Because it needs to be done individually and collectively. When drawing lessons, the opponent must also be taken into account. We came to do our job. We can do better.
- Leaving the result aside, what did you like the most?
- It was an elementary game. We had 7 goal chances, we scored three.
- You played against Azerbaijan in 1995, you won 10:0. A year later you became world champion. Don't you think that France will become world champion again in a year?
- Our desire is to be selected there. It was a long time ago against Azerbaijan. If I'm not mistaken, we were playing in Auxerre. At that time, my current players were not born. Players need to be given time, they are young.