France skipper predicting 'battle' against Socceroos'
Kazan: The physicality of the Socceroos has been highlighted as the biggest threat to the French by Les Blues captain Hugo Lloris, who repeatedly predicted their opening 2018 World Cup match will be a "battle".
The Tottenham goalkeeper says France need to raise their aggression and intensity for Saturday's match against Australia in Kazan before they can execute with their superior technical ability.
Lloris dismissed suggestions of an easy win for Les Blues who struggled against USA in their last warm-up match before the tournament, paying respect to the Australians' style of play and physical strength.
However, at several moments, Lloris anticipated the match to be a "battle," calling for his players to fight more to control possession than they have throughout their preparation matches.
"This is an official match, it’s going to be a much higher intensity, the teams are going to fight,it’s going to be a battle, we’ve studied the Australians and it’s going to be a very difficult game," Lloris said through an interpretator.
"It’s going to be a battle, we're going to be present int he duals and w’ere also going to add a technical aspect to it because there are talented players and we’re going to respect them too."
While a tough and bruising clash may be of concern to the players, France coach Didier Deschamps was highly respectful of what the Socceroos can do with the ball. Deschamps praised Australia as a team that tries to play football in the right spirit, retaining possession and keeping the ball on the deck.
"They have offensive potential, they don’t play long balls, the go to the sides, they try to play on the ground. It’s a well organised team, it’s highly disciplined but it’s a playing team that plays with a different system," he said.