‘It’s hard when you know you’ve already qualified’ – Warren Zaire-Emery on France’s comeback win | OneFootball

France’s match against Azerbaijan on Sunday evening was a dead rubber. Les Bleus had already secured their place in next summer’s FIFA World Cup thanks to a comfortable 4-0 win over Ukraine on Thursday night. 

It meant that Didier Deschamps’ men headed to Azerbaijan with pride to play for. But with nothing truly on the line, Les Bleus were sloppy early on, conceding an early goal. “We started the match in a way that was not good at all,” admitted Deschamps.

However, he then highlighted the “reaction”, which was certainly positive. After Jean-Philippe Mateta levelled the game with a header, Maghnes Akliouche’s tap-in at the back post saw Les Bleus take the lead in the 30th minute, before an own goal from the Azerbaijan goalkeeper, Shahrudin Mahammadaliyev, saw France head into the break 3-1 up.

Zaire-Emery ‘dreaming’ of World Cup spot

Thereafter, Deschamps’ side managed the encounter, securing the win that sees them end their qualifying campaign unbeaten. Post-match, Warren Zaire-Emery, one of the players brought into the side, said that it wasn’t necessarily easy to prepare for the game. 

“We managed to get the job done. It is hard when you know that you’ve already qualified, but we are the France national team and we should win every match and put in a good performance,” said the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder.

After returning to the senior side set-up, he now hopes to book his place on the plane to North America next summer. “Every player dreams of playing in the World Cup, some of the players in this squad have already done it. It would be a pleasure to be there, to help the team reach this dream,” said the Zaire-Emery. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle