The words of Koundé and Deschamps on Ivory Coast

On the eve of the friendly meeting between France and Ivory Coast, Didier Deschamps and Jules Koundé were present at a press conference. The two men particularly praised the qualities of the winner of CAN 2023: “I think of the last CAN that I was able to follow, I even attended Cameroon – Ivory Coast (1-1)recalls Koundé. I am also thinking of March 2022 when we faced them (at the Vélodrome, 2-1 victory for the Blues). It’s a good team with very good players, a physical team, which also has ball players and who know how to make differences, particularly on the flanks. We expect a difficult match. »

For Didier Deschamps, Ivory Coast has the quality to put many nations in difficulty: “Côte d’Ivoire is one of the very good African and world nations, with quality players, young people, experienced players… there is potential to do very good things, that’s all the bad I wish them. There is Emerse (Faé) with whom I had the opportunity to talk quite a few times. We don’t have the same courses (at the World Cup), the same opponents, but Ivory Coast is still one of the best nations because there are always players who play in the big European clubs. »