Dn the mixture of tension and cacophony which has sometimes surrounded this meeting for several weeks, we would have almost forgotten it: the France – Israel which will compete this Thursday (8:45 p.m.) at the Stade de France is not a summit geopolitical but “just” a football match. A fifth day of the first phase of the League of Nations, the stakes of which will not raise the crowds: the objective is only of prestige for the selection of Ran Ben Shimon, last in his group after having lost his first four matches and condemned to return to League B. For the Blues, it is a question of definitively validating their ticket for the quarter-finals of the event, which will take place in March in the form of a two-way match, even before concluding on Sunday in Italy.
A point in two games… This is reminiscent of another month of November – 1993 – when Jean-Pierre Papin and his teammates had their feet in the carpet to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, with the only defeat in history against the Israelis (2-3) at the Parc des Princes before sinking against the Bulgarians.
Disenchantment, results
Thirty-one years later, the impact of a setback would obviously be less traumatic but would fuel this feeling of disenchantment which has accompanied the return of Didier Deschamps and his men since September. There will be 4,000 police and gendarmes around and in the stadium for barely more than 20,000 spectators, the worst attendance for the Blues at the venue since the 36,842 spectators in a friendly against New Zealand in 2003.
It is obviously difficult to water down the share of security concerns and political demonstrations in this number, a week after the attacks on Maccabi Tel-Aviv supporters in the streets of Amsterdam and while the Israeli government asked its nationals to stay at home. But it also expresses a somewhat chipped passion, measured by falling television audiences (3.9 million and 4.7 million viewers) during a month of October where the absence and then the trip of Kylian Mbappé to Stockholm have been more talked about than the successes against Israel (1-4), already, in Budapest, then in Belgium (1-2).
It's a shame, because if the setback in September against Italy had worried (1-3), the three matches played since without their captain – add the success against Belgium in Lyon 2-0 – have shown a training to return to its collective bases. Failing to get carried away, it is solid and it wins by relying in particular on the speed of its offensive players.
Always a laboratory
This time, in addition to Mbappé, the French coach must make do with the absences of Dembélé and Tchouaméni. This will be the opportunity to see Coman, Kanté and Rabiot again but also Olise, Koné, Zaire-Emery in a competition which Deschamps claims to want to make a laboratory of. She has been particularly successful so far at Kolo Muani (7 goals and three assists in her last seven starts) and at Barcola, who brought her legs and freshness. Work still underway in defense and in the middle where the two meetings of the week should once again offer a turnover.
At 750,000 euros for victory and the prospect of a jackpot of at least 7 million euros in the event of participation in the Final Four in June, the pragmatists will say that the FFF could, if successful, participate in financing security at a time when the State seeks to replenish the coffers. With the assurance of an elimination group of only four teams (for a qualifier and a play-off) if qualification and of being a play-off if first place in the group, Didier Deschamps will remember that the week can open a little more the path to the Cup of the 2026 world championship with 48 teams. Because it’s still a sport, all the same.
