Deschamps praises France response to ´disaster scenario´

Didier Deschamps praised his France side for recovering from a “disaster scenario” in Raphael Varane’s red card to win an entertaining friendly against England 3-2 in Paris.

Les Bleus suffered a disappointing 2-1 loss to Sweden in World Cup qualifying at the weekend thanks to a rare Hugo Lloris error in Stockholm, but hit back on home turf against Gareth Southgate’s men.

That was despite two goals from Harry Kane, sandwiched between goals from Samuel Umtiti and Djibril Sidibe, the second of which came from the penalty spot after Varane was dismissed following use of the Video Assistant Referees system for bringing down Dele Alli.

Ousmane Dembele ultimately proved the match winner following a sublime display at the Stade de France and Deschamps was delighted with the resolve shown by his team.

“It’s always good [to finish a season with a win], especially after a defeat – even if there was a disaster scenario for us [with the red card],” he told Telefoot.

“We ended up with 10 men, so credit to the players because it’s a nice England team.

“I regret the result [against Sweden] and what happened. I made choices, it was not all the same context as here – it was a qualifying match, here it is a friendly, a different team.

YAAAAAAH!!! #FiersdetreBleus pic.twitter.com/zG3WDYwbQD

— Equipe de France (@equipedefrance) June 13, 2017

“The players who have had time to play today have many qualities as well. We had less energy [against Sweden]. Today, we had more legs.”

France return to action on August 31 against Netherlands, one place and three points behind Deschamps’ men in Group A of the European section of World Cup qualifying.