{"id":161193,"date":"2025-06-05T21:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T21:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/161193\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T21:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T21:05:09","slug":"deschamps-banking-on-france-depth-against-best-in-the-world-spain-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/161193\/","title":{"rendered":"Deschamps banking on France depth against \u2018best in the world\u2019 Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1318918_7246465_Coac_akhbar.jpg\" alt=\"France\u2019s 2018 World Cup-winning coach Didier Deschamps. \u2014 AFP\/File\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" class=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>France\u2019s 2018 World Cup-winning coach Didier Deschamps. \u2014 AFP\/File<\/p>\n<p>Stuttgart, Germany: France coach Didier Deschamps said his injury-hit side had the quality to trouble defending Nations League champions Spain in Thursday\u00b4s semi-final, with Germany or Portugal awaiting the winner in the title match on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>France will face the Euro 2024 winners Spain in Stuttgart missing first-choice defenders William Saliba, Dayot Upamecano and Jules Kounde who have 100 international caps between them.<\/p>\n<p>But Deschamps has a history of pragmatism in such matters, leading France to triumph at the 2018 World Cup, and to the final in 2022, after campaigns that were also hit by selection worries.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters in Stuttgart on Wednesday, the 56-year-old said he remained confident. \u201cWhen it comes to a match against Spain, with their attacking potential, it\u00b4s not ideal but I wouldn\u00b4t say we are weakened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u00b4m counting on the guys who play on Thursday.\u201d In attack France will be looking to Kylian Mbappe and freshly-minted Champions League winners Desire Doue and Ousmane Dembele of Paris Saint-Germain.<\/p>\n<p>Deschamps praised Dembele, saying the forward \u201cdeserves the Ballon d\u00b4Or\u201d for his dazzling season with PSG. \u201cOver an entire season, and with the one Ousmane is having, he deserves it and that\u00b4s all I wish him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The coach said Dembele was ahead of Spain\u00b4s teenage talent Lamine Yamal, but the pair will share the spotlight on Thursday. \u201cThe Nations League can provide some answers, as can the Club World Cup,\u201d said Deschamps.<\/p>\n<p>After Saturday\u00b4s Champions League final, PSG coach Luis Enrique also backed Dembele for Ballon d\u00b4Or honours. Defender Ibrahima Konate joined the chorus on Wednesday. \u201cWhat Ousmane has done this season is simply incredible,\u201d said Konate. \u201cOusmane deserves the Ballon d\u00b4Or, period.\u201d The wave of injuries leaves Liverpool centre-back Konate as the likely leader of France\u00b4s defence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France\u2019s 2018 World Cup-winning coach Didier Deschamps. \u2014 AFP\/File Stuttgart, Germany: France coach Didier Deschamps said his injury-hit&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[9988,3427,2703,67892,67891,2000,299,36,256,254,104,5598,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-161193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-against","9":"tag-banking","10":"tag-best","11":"tag-depth","12":"tag-deschamps","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-france","16":"tag-in","17":"tag-on","18":"tag-spain","19":"tag-the","20":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114632794689609728","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}