International: Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Hugo Lloris sends World Cup reminder to his France teammates
Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper and France international captain Hugo Lloris believes that his country can compete and has sent a reminder to his national teammates ahead of their opening game at the 2022 FIFA World Cup against Australia.
France has been plagued by injuries before the tournament with the likes of Karim Benzema, Christopher Nkunku, Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante and Presnel Kimpembe all set to miss this year’s World Cup.
Despite this, Lloris believes his country can compete and has what it takes to have another successful campaign. (h/t Tottenham Hotspur website)
“We still have a very competitive team. For France, it’s going to be a big challenge because we won the last one and obviously every team, they are going to be very excited to face France and to try to beat us.”
“There are no easy games at this level. The only difference is in the group stage, you have three games to go through and then after that, it’s a new competition that is going to start where you know that if you lose, you go home. Every game is a challenge, a battle…”
Lloris captained his side to victory in the last World Cup when the French beat Croatia 4-2 to lift the coveted trophy. The 35-year-old has been his country’s first-choice keeper for the past three tournaments and will be playing in his fourth this year.
France have been placed in Group D along with Denmark, Tunisia and Australia. The World Cup champions are favourites to go through the group and also to win again this year.
The champions begin their defence against Australia later today. They will then face Denmark on 26th November, before their final group stage game against Tunisia on 30th November.
It remains to be seen how far France can go this time. One of the favourites going into the competition, Lloris will know the task that faces his team – of becoming the first country to win back-to-back World Cups since Brazil in 1962.
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He made us proud in Russia, and hopefully, he can do it again this time around in Qatar. This could be his last major tournament with Les Bleus and a World Cup win would be a fitting end to 35-year-old ‘s career – if he does get displaced in the future.
With the likes of Illan Meslier, Mike Maignan, and Adam Lafont waiting on the wings, that time may not be too far away.
