William Saliba (23 years old, 16 caps) sometimes finds the time “long” with the French team at the Euro 2024 base camp in Bad Lippspringe. The players still have some things to do.
At 23 years old and after the 2022 World Cup (one match), William Saliba (16 caps) is playing his second major international competition and his first Euro. And the defender, who gleaned his starting place at the expense of Ibrahima Konaté, finds the time a little long during the rest periods between the Blues’ scheduled training sessions. The Arsenal player still manages to keep busy at the Blues base camp in Bad Lippspringe… without this seeming to completely alleviate his apparent boredom.
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Maps, PlayStation, matches…
“I’m not going to lie to you, it’s true that it’s long,” smiles the former Stéphanois and Marseillais player. “We’re at base camp, it’s okay, there are certain things to do, we can play cards. In the morning, there is no training most of the time, it’s often in the afternoon. So we try to keep busy as best we can, playing cards, playing PlayStation, watching the matches… But it’s clear that it’s a long time. go a little faster.”
After their victory against Austria (1-0) on Monday, things will however accelerate for Didier Deschamps’ men in the competition with a second match against the Netherlands on Friday (9 p.m. in Leipzig), then against the Poland on Tuesday (18 in Dortmund). The Blues will also have a slightly shorter recovery time than the Dutch due to the scheduling of their first match more than 24 hours after that of the Oranje. The French also lost a little recovery time during a longer than expected return journey during the night from Monday to Tuesday.
“We have two nights less than them, but we’re not going to start making excuses,” he remarks. “We know it’s going to be a difficult match. We’re trying to recover as much as possible. We still have two days to recover.” Two long days… but precious.
