Zinédine Zidane après la victoire de la France contre la Belgique : « Ce soir c'est le foot, c'est ce qu'on aime »
After the stunning victory of the French team against Belgium (4-1), Zinedine Zidane spoke about the match and the end of his first gathering to TF1.
Zinedine Zidane, the French national team coach, speaking to TF1 after Les Bleus' 4-1 victory against Belgium on Monday in the Nations League: "This (Monday) evening, it's football, it's what we love. There were difficulties in the first half, but that's part of the game, part of the kind of matches we have from time to time. It's good to correct things, that's what we did, we managed to have an extraordinary second half, but I'm including everyone in that. We didn't have a very bad first half, that's not it. We were missing a lot of things; we started well, then we were still lacking those last few meters where, if we don't set the pace, it's complicated, but then we managed to turn the game around and that was good."
Anyway, we knew that with the substitutions we could change the game because these are high-quality players. But, again, it was a complete performance, whatever happens. The others may have made the difference when they came on, but everyone was good these past two weeks, everyone played their part, and that's what I'll remember. It's true that we're talking about Olise because he scored, Désiré came on and scored, all the players who came on scored, which means it was the right choice. They were the right choices, yes.
"That's what we lacked: occupying the penalty area when there are overlaps, when there are crosses, when there are short through balls..."
We need to improve our verticality, the speed we need to bring to the final 20 or 30 meters; that's clearly an area for improvement over these four matches. We also need to be more present in the penalty area; we lacked that in almost all four games, except perhaps towards the end. We lacked that: being in the penalty area when there were overlaps, when there were crosses, when there were short through balls, that's it. But it will come little by little. I'm proud and happy with my players, with the two weeks we've spent together. Beyond the results, because they're good—we have three wins and a draw, we have 10 points, we're in a good position—what I'll remember most is the team spirit, the fact that we worked well together, and that's fantastic.
"My assessment of this first training camp as national coach? There's nothing to criticize. Absolutely nothing, quite the opposite."
My assessment of this first training camp as national team coach? There's nothing to criticize. Absolutely nothing, quite the opposite. I was even pleasantly surprised by the players' attitude. I knew they were true professionals, but this was something else: truly serious about their work, a group that gets along well, together, and that's it. I was very happy to be able to spend these two weeks with them. Now, for them, the problem is that it continues; they go back to their clubs and it all stops. For me, yes, it's going to feel strange. It's going to come to a bit of a halt, which is a little frustrating, but oh well...
As I said, everyone played, I have confidence in all my players. Not only did everyone buy in, but what we saw, what emanates from this group, is that even the players who were substituted were happy for those who scored, and that's ultimately what makes it work, that's the winning mentality of the group. There will always be a player who makes the difference, it will always be like that... Yes, we did what we said we would, we prepared things so that everyone would have their moment, and that's what we wanted over the 15 days. We also had to be careful with the players; we couldn't just do anything, so it was important that everyone had their moment.
"We're happy it turned out this way, that everyone was able to play."
Today, this time, that was the philosophy. It happened, it was planned, we organized it this way, and we're happy it went like this, that everyone was able to play. The only one who didn't start was Jean Butez, but even Lenny Yoro played and had a fantastic match after Jérémy (Jacquet) was slightly injured, so it's really great.
Commentaires (8)
ZZ a une belle équipe qui fait bien rouler le ballon...Sortir Dembouz a été une idée lumineuse...Quant à Mobutu, on l'a pas regretté hier soir...
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