‘It’s one of the toughest groups’ – Didier Deschamps reacts to France’s 2026 World Cup draw | OneFootball

France have been drawn in Group I of the 2026 World Cup on Friday as the finals’ draw took place in Washington DC’s Kennedy Center. Les Bleus will face Sénégal, Norway as well as the FIFA Play-off 2 winner, which will be either Bolivia, Suriname or Iraq. Compared to other nations, and despite France’s status as as seeded nation, fate has not really been kind to Les Bleus as they’ll come across one of the best teams in Africa and Erling Haaland’s Norwegian team that swatted Italy twice in the qualifiers.

“It’s one of the toughest groups, if not the toughest“, told France manager Didier Deschamps to L’Equipe. The France manager was not part of the France squad that fell against Sénégal in the 2002 World Cup opener, but he is adamant that the Lions de la Téranga will put up another World Cup fight against France. “They’re a competitive national team. And I won’t say anything different about Norway after their qualifying campaign. They’re one of the very best European teams.” 

Deschamps says that France will need to up their game from the get-go if they want to stand a chance to make it three World Cup finals in a row. “We certainly have ambition, but with the necessary humility. We need to perform well right from the start before thinking about what comes next.”

Nevertheless, Deschamps was pleased to see France have been drawn to play in the Eastern time zone, which will ease the World Cup burden for Les Bleus. 

GFFN | Bastien Cheval