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France head coach Didier Deschamps celebrates after France’s Bradley Barcola scores his side’s second goal during the World Cup Group I soccer match between France and Senegal in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Tuesday, June 16, 2026.<\/p>\n
Yuki Iwamura\/AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura<\/p>\n
France head coach Didier Deschamps sits on the bench before the World Cup Group I soccer match between France and Iraq in Philadelphia, Monday, June 22, 2026.<\/p>\n
Derik Hamilton\/AP Photo\/Derik Hamilton<\/p>\n
France head coach Didier Deschamps walks on the pitch during a training session during the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament, at the France base camp in Waltham, Mass., near Boston, Saturday, June 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
Martin Meissner\/AP Photo\/Martin Meissner<\/p>\n
France head coach Didier Deschamps walks on the pitch during a training session during the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament, at the France base camp in Waltham, Mass., near Boston, Saturday, June 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
Martin Meissner\/AP Photo\/Martin Meissner<\/p>\n
France head coach Didier Deschamps celebrates after France’s Bradley Barcola scores his side’s second goal during the World Cup Group I soccer match between France and Senegal in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Tuesday, June 16, 2026.<\/p>\n
Yuki Iwamura\/AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura<\/p>\n
EAST RUTHERFORD, N,J. (AP) \u2014 France coach Didier Deschamps is back with Les Bleus for their round of 32 match against Sweden at the World Cup on Tuesday after traveling to Europe for his mother’s funeral.<\/p>\n
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Deschamps learned of his mother\u2019s death the day after France’s win over Iraq on June 22, which clinched advancement from the group stage. He missed Friday’s victory over Norway.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019m here. I\u2019m good, and it\u2019s good to be busy since Friday evening when I arrived back in the United States,\u201d Dechamps said Monday through a translator.<\/p>\n
France swept its group matches for the first time since 1998, joined by Argentina and Mexico as the only nations to win all three games. Seeking their third title after 1998 and 2018, Les Blues would face Germany or Paraguay in the round of 16 if they get past the Swedes.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me it was very difficult. And for me and for the French national team it was important that I left. They did what they had to do,\u201d Deschamps said. \u201cAnd now we\u2019re preparing a competition within the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Assistant Guy St\u00e9phan led the team to the 4-1 win over Norway in Deschamps’ absence.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was somewhat of a shock,\u201d midfielder Adrien Rabiot said through a translator. \u201cHe completely trusted in us and we delivered the best way possible. We\u2019re happy that he\u2019s back. I don’t think that it\u2019s so easy to have to grieve in these conditions. This is football and now we have the World Cup and it is the way it is.”<\/p>\n Deschamps coached France to the 2018 title and to the 2022 final, a penalty-kick loss to Argentina.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Captain of France\u2019s 1998 champions, Deschamps took over as coach in 2012 and said in January he would retire this summer. He is trying to become the second coach to win two World Cup titles after Italy\u2019s Vittorio Pozzo in 1934 and 1938.<\/p>\n \u201cDidier came back with the willpower to go as far as possible in this World Cup. It is something that, of course, will also help him to forget a little bit about these tragic events,\u201d Rabiot said. “He smiled a lot. He tried to be enthusiastic, although I know that he\u2019s very affected by his grief. I think he\u2019s trying not to show it, not to transmit any negative to the squad.\u201d<\/p>\n FIFA denied France’s request to wear black armbands for coach’s mother<\/p>\n FIFA denied a request by the French soccer federation to wear black armbands against Norway in honor of Deschamps mother.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t change a lot for me, to be very honest with you,\u201d Deschamps said. \u201cI didn\u2019t need that to have an additional sign. I already had enough signs as it was, whether it was directly or indirectly.\u201d<\/p>\n FIFA did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.<\/p>\n Marcus Thuram to miss match against Sweden and N’Golo Kant\u00e9 uncertain<\/p>\n Striker Marcus Thuram won’t be available against Sweden because of a calf injury and midfielder N\u2019Golo Kant\u00e9 is uncertain.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cAs far as Markus, no, he has a little issue. It\u2019s not very serious but muscular,\u201d Deschamps said. \u201cAs far as N\u2019Golo, it\u2019s not muscular, but maybe it\u2019ll be too tight for him to be in the starting 11 tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n Thuram, a son of 1998 World Cup champion Lilian Thuram, entered in second-half injury time against Iraq in his only appearance so far.<\/p>\n Defender William Saliba went the distance in the first two matches and rested against Norway.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course he has issues with his back, and that is not something new,\u201d Deschamps said. \u201cHe\u2019s not at 100%, but if he\u2019s at 99% it\u2019s good for the matches. Everything is good.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n First-time World Cup meeting between France and Sweden<\/p>\n France is meeting Sweden at the World Cup for the first time.<\/p>\n Les Blues had the best goal difference in the group stage at plus-8, outscoring opponents 10-2.<\/p>\n \u201cWe could have scored more,” Deschamps said. “We did concede two goals, but we did concede too many goal-scoring opportunities.”<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France head coach Didier Deschamps celebrates after France’s Bradley Barcola scores his side’s second goal during the World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6283,29518,199,5,27578,29520,21,513,11525,330,29,22,23960,27,9090,29519,210],"class_list":["post-43383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-adrien-rabiot","tag-deschamps-world-cup-mother-death","tag-didier-deschamps","tag-france","tag-guy-stephan","tag-lilian-thuram","tag-marcus-thuram","tag-mexico","tag-ngolo-kante","tag-norway","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40800-ap-new-jersey-sports-only","tag-product-42059-world-cup-text","tag-sweden","tag-vittorio-pozzo","tag-william-saliba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
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