Didier Deschamps makes admission over France's World Cup final performance
By Tom Gott
France manager Didier Deschamps has confessed that his side were feeling the 'physical and psychological' impact of the virus that ripped through their squad in Sunday's World Cup final defeat.
Les Bleus lost a number of key players, including the likes of Dayot Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot, to illness in the build-up to the game, with Deschamps taking emergency measures to try and prevent a full-blown outbreak before the match.
Nevertheless, France looked leggy for large parts of the final, with Raphael Varane forced off late on after appearing to fall to the ground in sheer exhaustion, and Deschamps admitted the virus will have played its part.
“The whole squad has been facing a tricky situation for a while now,” the boss said. “Maybe that had a physical or psychological impact. But I had no concerns about the players who started the match: they were 100% fit.
“We only had four days since the last match so there was some tiredness, perhaps. That’s not an excuse, we just didn’t have the same energy as in the previous match and that’s why, for the first hour or so, we weren’t in the match.”
That being said, Deschamps was keen to stress that the illness was not the reason for France's defeat and he also refrained from publicly criticising the performance of Polish referee Szymon Marciniak, who has been criticised by parts of the French media.
“It could have been worse, it could have been better," Deschamps said of the official's performance. "Before this match Argentina had been a little bit lucky but I don’t want to take anything away from them; they fully deserve the title.
"It is not because we suffered from any decisions that they came out victorious. I just discussed this with the referee after the game but don’t want to go into details.”