France will prepare to make history on Sunday when Les Bleus faces off against Argentina and Lionel Messi.
After winning the 2018 FIFA World Cup, France hopes to become the first nation since 1962 to win back-to-back tournaments. Ahead of the matchup, AC Milan and French teammates Olivier Giroud and Theo Hernandez spoke about facing Argentina.
Giroud assured that Argentina “is more than Messi” and that it would be wrong for the French team to focus only on the veteran forward, considering other players have the capability of hurting them on defense.
“Messi is an incredible player; we’re going to have to do well to win that game and try to stop him,” Giroud said (h/t Minuto 30). “But Argentina is not only Messi; they have very good players.”
Hernandez acknowledged that Argentina has a great team ahead of their matchup. However, the 25-year-old stated that the French squad isn’t afraid of facing the South American giant.
“Messi doesn’t scare us; we know that Argentina has an incredible team,” Hernandez said on RAI Italia (h/t TUDN’s Lindsay Casinelli). “We need to recover well to be as good as possible on Sunday.”
France will lean on Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann for their attack and two players who have held stellar tournaments so far. Meanwhile, Messi has to carry Argentina as the attack runs through him.
