France, Deschamps: "We'll go to the World Cup without making calculations. Italy must come back: they have the quality to do so"

Interviewed by the foreign press, the coach of the French national team Didier Deschamps has spoken again. He wanted to explain the role that France will play at the next Russian World Cup, claiming that its national team has many young players and that there will also be some more prepared teams to contend for the cup: "I think there is some countries ahead of us for the quality of the players and experience. I think of Spain, Brazil, Germany. There are people who have already played and won competitions such as World Cup and European Championships. France is competitive, but young. At least half of the squad will play their first World Cup. I am convinced that the young people I have today, who are 20 years old or less, will be better in 2 or 4 years, it's not only about the quality... ".

Deschamps also wanted to talk about the experience of some players present in the team, one of these is Juventus' midfielder Blaise Matuidi and also former Juventus player Pogba: "He is one of the key players and he knows it, then it may not always play but it's normal. He knows he is a leader. Did I advise him to go to Juventus? (laughs, ed.) Would I also do it with Martial? I don't know, they have to decide ... Pogba's performances depend on many things: with me in the National team he did not only play big games, but I have found him performing and involved".

The Frenchman also made a joke on the objective of France at the World Cup, imposing not to make calculations: "We must not speculate, because if everything goes well, we can still finish in the second round and, knowing the intersections, find ourselves against Argentina: In Brazil we played against Germany, the future world champion, in the quarters".

Finally, a parenthesis was also opened on Italian football and, of course, on Italy's heavy lack in Russia: "In my days everyone wanted to go to Italy, today I don't think so but the championship is always competitive. Juve are always a bit ahead, but the other teams also work well. It will be strange not to see Italy at the World Cup, but it can happen. It happened twice to me in 1990 and 1994 to watch the World Cup at home. It's like a cataclysm, it has important consequences, everything is questioned from A to Z. They have to come back, because the quality is there".

The full interview in today's Tuttosport.