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France assistant coach Guy Stephan dedicated the team's dominating 4-1 win over Norway to head coach Didier Deschamps, saying his thoughts were with him and that he would speak to him later.
He expressed relief that Deschamps is expected to rejoin the squad soon and be back at training the following day. Ousmane Dembele's outstanding hat-trick powered France to a commanding 4-1 victory over Norway in their FIFA World Cup 2026 Group I match in Boston on Friday. Stephan praised the players for their performance, saying they delivered what was required and added that the squad, given their close bond with Deschamps, were motivated to put in a strong display in his absence. "Obviously all my thoughts go to Didier Deschamps. I will call him later. We are all happy that he will be back with the team shortly. He will be at training tomorrow afternoon," Stephan told reporters as per Reuters. "All the players did what they had to do," Stephan said. "Given that they are very close to Didier, the players wanted to do something special today on the pitch," he added. Both sides had already secured qualification for the knockout stages after winning their opening two matches. France topped the group on goal difference heading into the fixture and required only a draw to finish first. However, they emphatically ended the group stage, sealing a commanding victory to confirm top spot in Group I. Stephan felt that while the performance was largely positive, he was less pleased with periods where his team relaxed and reduced their intensity, which allowed the opposition to create chances. He added that this is an area they must improve as tougher opponents lie ahead, noting that Norway were not at full strength in the match. "What I liked a little bit less, if you want to be a little bit on the perfectionist side, is that there were times when things got easy and then we didn't run as much, and we ended up with situations where we gave opportunities to the opponents," he said. "This is something we need to work on as the opponents are going to get better. I'm not saying that Norway isn't a good quality team, but they didn't have their A team today," he concluded. Manchester City star Erling Haaland, Arsenal star Martin Odegaard, and Alexander Sorloth did not feature for Norway in their final group stage match against France. The decision to rest some of the key players from Norway was made by coach Solbakken, who has decided to rest players ahead of the Round of 32. (ANI)
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