France will be keen to represent their colours with more pride than ever when they take the field in a friendly against England at Wembley four days after the deadly attacks in Paris, coach Didier Deschamps said last night.
The decision to play the highly emotional game was taken on Saturday by French federation president Noel Le Graet and Deschamps. “We are here now to take the field to represent our country probably with even more pride than we normally would and to make sure that our colours, blue, white, and red, will be represented with more pride,” Deschamps said at Wembley yesterday.
“It will be much more than a sports event.
“We are here to represent our country and show that we are proud to be French, in a historical stadium, and I want to thank the English fans for their messages of solidarity.
“It will be an emotional game.”
France were playing Germany at the Stade de France on Friday when three explosions were heard outside the stadium as suicide bombers blew themselves up, part of a series of attacks across Paris that killed at least 129 people.
“We were focused on our game on Friday,” Deschamps said of his side’s 2-0 victory. “We were told what happened at the end of the match.”
French players and staff stayed inside the stadium with their German counterparts until late in the night before they decided the England friendly should go ahead as scheduled.
“We had doubts but the situation was well managed by the coach and the president,” said captain and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
“It will be a great moment of solidarity. The last three days have been traumatic. We mourned, together.”
The match has “massive global significance” and is a chance to show “terrorism can’t win”, English Football Association chief executive Martin Glenn said. He told a news conference: “This is going to have massive global significance, the first major event since Friday. It is a chance to demonstrate terrorism can’t win.
“We can’t afford to let this act of terror cow us.”
Glenn also urged supporters to turn up early for the friendly, partly because of the tributes planned before kick off but also because of the security checks that will be in place.
Glenn said there will be an increased “physical police presence” for the match.
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