Didier Deschamps has warned England that Kylian Mbappe can destroy them in the blink of an eye - even if they think they have contained him.
All the focus in Saturday night’s quarter-final showdown will be on France’s star player Mbappe and whether England can handle the World Cup’s leading goalscorer. Poland looked to have nullified Mbappe in the previous round, until the Paris Saint-Germain star produced two stunning finishes late on to win the game 3-1.
France coach Deschamps said that showed that teams can never think they have the measure of Mbappe, because he can always turn a game with a moment of magic. “I’m sure England will have prepared to face Kylian, as our previous opponents did,” said Deschamps.
“Kylian is always in a position to make the difference. Even in the last match, when he didn’t have his best game, when he didn’t show his top form compared to previous games, he was still decisive.
“We have other players that can be dangerous as well and that helps us not to be over-reliant on Kylian. But Kylian is Kylian, and he always will be. He has that capacity to make the difference at any moment in the match.
“Pace is often one of the keys in games, because when you are quick, your opponent has less time to get organised. But you need more than just pace to score. You can stop a lot of things, but it’s very difficult to stop anyone who is quick, especially in transitions.”
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Deschamps and Southgate have faced each other as managers once before: a friendly in Paris in 2017, which England lost 3-2. The pair also met as players, when Deschamps played a solitary season at Chelsea and Southgate was at Aston Villa in the 1999-2000 campaign.
Deschamps praised the job Southgate has done with England and said he deserved more credit for the way he has transformed the Three Lions.
“I like Gareth, we’ve met on a number of occasions and talked about a number of things,” said Deschamps. “If I understand correctly, not everyone appreciates him so much in his own country.
“That isn’t because he wasn’t a good footballer himself - he had a long and distinguished career and is also a very good coach. He’s enabled England to get some very good results in recent years.
“All teams have strengths, not all have too many weaknesses, but some have slightly less strong points. England have had the opportunity to see us play in four matches here, even though the third - against Tunisia, when we made changes - may not have been too useful for them.
“Different players have different abilities and you also need to make decisions to identify the slight weaknesses of your opponents, then attack them.”
