A few days before France-Israel at the Stade de France (Thursday November 14), Ran Ben Shimon's players arrived in the Paris region to prepare for this League of Nations meeting. Despite the high tensions linked to the conflict in the Middle East, Israeli internationals are trying to focus on the ground.
The movement of Israeli players to Paris is closely scrutinized. Two days before facing the Blues at the Stade de France in the League of Nations, Ran Ben Shimon's protégés are in an impressive security bubble. As indicated by RMC Sport, the team is preparing in a stadium in the Paris region out of sight. With one main objective: to concentrate on Football.
“I see a lot of security in Paris. On the one hand, people want to see sport and on the other they want everything to go well. I don't feel anything extreme. We feel safe here. We will try to do our best and concentrate on football,” the Israeli coach told the Israeli Football Association.
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Ran Ben Shimon wants “everything to take place in a peaceful atmosphere” and hopes that his team will “play a good match” against the French team, “because after all it is only about sport”. “The biggest reason I wanted to coach the Israel national team is the connection with the fans. It's a time to be on this national team, not just as a coach but for the players. It's a great privilege for us, for me the most important thing is that people sit at home and see a good national team playing football that gives them reason to be proud. I believe we have players who know what to do, so everything will go well,” he explains.
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The match is classified as very high risk by the DNLH
On the players' side, the excitement of playing at the Stade de France takes over, even if the Israeli supporters will be in the minority. “It's a shame that our Israeli public is not at the stadium. We think of them, we will do everything for them. The sensations here are very good, the security is doing its job to the maximum and we have our heads on the “We concentrate on the match. We only think about football, what's around us, we don't think about it too much,” says midfielder Ethane Azoulay.
After training out of sight, the Israeli players will discover the Stade de France on Wednesday, the eve of the Nations League match. On the program: a press conference and training before returning to the Blues on Thursday for a match ranked, unsurprisingly, 5 on a scale of 5 by the services of the National Division for the Fight against Hooliganism.
