France skipper Hugo Lloris urged his teammates to embrace the pressure of starting their World Cup campaign on Tuesday as defending champions and shrug off the absence of key players.
France skipper Hugo Lloris urged his teammates to embrace the pressure of starting their World Cup campaign on Tuesday as defending champions and shrug off the absence of key players.
Lloris, 35, led a team featuring Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kanté to the 2018 title in Russia at the expense of Croatia.
Pogba and Kanté have been ruled out with injuries in the last month and on the eve of the tournament strikers Karim Benzema and Christopher Nkunku were also forced to pull out.
"There is pressure on all the teams involved in the World Cup," said Lloris.
Adaptability
"Being the defending champions, of course, there are expectations. Obviously, the last-minute withdrawals have not helped the team, especially Karim's, because we know how important he is to the team.
"But within our group and our team, we have a very specific mission: it is above all to be concentrated on this group phase and to give ourselves every chance to finish first."
Australia, at 38th in the world rankings, pose the first test for France at the Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah, 22 kilometres south of central Doha.
Didier Deschamps' players will take on Denmark on 26 November before finishing their Group D adventure against Tunisia on 30 November.
Firepower
In Benzema's absence, Deschamps is likely to deploy the same troika of Antoine Griezmann, Olivier Giroud and Kylian Mbappé that fired France to glory four years ago.
"Mbappé has always had the ability to make the difference and we will need that," said Deschamps of the 23-year-old Paris Saint-Germain forward whose PSG teammates Lionel Messi and Neymar are at the tournament representing Argentina and Brazil respectively.
"He has the ability to be decisive at any moment, unlike many other players."
Regard
Graham Arnold, Deschamps' Australia counterpart, says he does not want want his players to become distracted by reputations.
"It's not being disrespectful at all but I've hardly mentioned the word France," said Arnold.
"And I've hardly mentioned any players' names. They all play in positions, the players know who they are but it's about identifying those players' strengths and it's one against one.
"There's 10 blue shirts against 10 yellow shirts and it's a fight."
Australia and France were in the same pool in Russia. Under then boss Bert van Marwijk they failed to emerge from the group stages.
Skipper Mathew Ryan, who featured in the Russia campaign, said his side would have to find the right balance during a phase where they will be considered makeweights.
"The biggest focus for us has been the mentality and the boys have grasped the mentality: we will go into every game - whoever we're facing - with the right amount of respect," he said.
"We won't underestimate anybody and we won't over-respect anyone and that's a real challenge."
In the Group D's other game, Denmark take on Tunisia at the 974 Stadium.
