France football boss Deschamps calls on players to keep calm ahead of Chile game

France football coach Didier Deschamps urged his squad to maintain their composure and not to panic during Tuesday's friendly match against Chile in Marseille following a chastening defeat to Germany in Lyon last week.

France football head coach Didier Deschamps conceded his players had not performed well during the 2-0 defeat against Germany. REUTERS - Benoit Tessier

The 2022 World Cup runners-up go into the fixture at the Vélodrome – their last before the start of this summer's European championships – again eager to show that they can prosper without midfield maestro Antoine Griezmann.

The 33-year-old Atletico Madrid star missed his first international in seven years last week and his absence was evident in the lack of fluidity in the transitions between defence and attack.

Florian Wirtz opened the scoring for Germany in the opening minute and Kai Havertz added the second just after half-time.

Deschamps fielded Warren Zaïre Emery, Aurélien Tchouaméni and Adrien Rabiot in midfield but none of the trio exerted the same influence as Griezmann. Marcus Thuram was unable to link effectively with skipper Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé failed to prosper down the right flank.

Change

Eduardo Camavinga is expected to start the game against Chile in place of Rabiot. Ousmane Dembélé is likely to make way for Randal Kolo Muani on the right hand side of the attack with Olivier Giroud in the centre instead of Marcus Thuram. Kylian Mbappé will again captain the side.

Deschamps, who steered the team to World Cup glory in 2018, said he will make changes to the defensive line for the game with the return from injury of goalkeeper Mike Maignan.

"We weren't good at the back nor at the front," said Deschamps on the eve of the clash. "It's certainly possible to make this negative statement about the collective balance of the side.

"But when we're not as good as we want to be, we don't necessarily want to be screaming at each other. We need to be talking with each other."

France are one of the favourites for the European crown. They start their quest on 17 June against Austria in Dusseldorf.

The French continue their Group D campaign four days later with a game against the Netherlands and finish in Dortmund on 25 June with a tie against Wales or Poland who play on Tuesday night for that final place in Group D.

"The fact that you want to dgive as much playing time to as many people as possible means that the team is always a bit more unbalanced and can look all over the place but it was the right time to do it."