France team split on Benjamin Pavard’s World Cup performances

Australia fans react to reaching World Cup last 16

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France’s World Cup squad are split over the performances of Benjamin Pavard after the Bayern Munich defender dropped out of Didier Deschamps’ first-team picture. Barcelona star Ousmane Dembele is one of the players reportedly unhappy with his displays but the experienced duo of Hugo Lloris and Olivier Giroud are sticking by their team-mate. 

Pavard started the World Cup as France’s first-choice right-back but was at fault for Australia’s shock opening goal in the encounter and was hooked for Jules Kounde towards the end of the match. The Barcelona defender started in the 26-year-old’s place in the next match against Denmark as Les Blues sealed their qualification to the knockout stage after a 2-1 win. 

With qualification sealed and top spot all but certain Deschamps named a heavily changed side against Tunisia as he looked to keep his side fresh for the round of 16. Pavard was a notable absentee after he played no part against the Danes with the French boss choosing to play Monaco centre-back Axel Didasi out of position instead. 

France fell to a shock 1-0 defeat at the hands of the African nation and Deschamps had some harsh words for Pavard as he explained why he did not play him. 

“I took the decision not to play him,” he told reporters. “I won’t go into the details. I’ve had several conversations with him. I don’t consider him to be in the right disposition. So you’ll ask me – is it physical, is it in his head? The first match didn’t help, of course. That’s why I made a different choice.”

Now, reports from France have suggested that the defender’s performances have even split the French dressing room. L’Equipe, per GFFN, have claimed that some members of the squad including Dembele have ‘railed against’ the player’s performances while others like Lloris and Giroud have remained steadfast in their support for their team-mate. 

Meanwhile, the France manager defended his decision to make so many changes ahead of the Tunisia defeat as he stressed the need to maintain a strong squad for the competition. 

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“We can’t tick all the boxes,” he said after the defeat. “The first objective was the most important and that was to seal our place in the round of 16. We were coming out of two high-intensity games. We will play four games in 12 days, we needed a breath of fresh air.

“But we need to do better than we did. Yes, the opponent punished us and gave us a run for our money. I wasn’t underestimating the opponent, I wasn’t not taking the game seriously, I was thinking about the game that is waiting for us on Sunday.”

Kounde is likely to regain his spot at right-back in the round of 16 clash against Poland with Pavard again expected to watch on from the sidelines given Deschamps’ comments and the situation in the dressing room. 

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