France coach Didier Deschamps is tut-der pressure after federation finance chiefs said they have budgeted for a quar¬ter-final spot in their annual reportThe 45-year-old¬who captained France to their only triumph in the World Cop in 0998 — has been blessed in oom¬parison to other .- ..Pea. heavPvelahls in drawing an improving if unspectacu¬lar Switzerland, Ecuador, probably the weakest of the South American repre¬sentatives, and minnows Honduras. The French rust face Honduras, who are looking for their first win at a finals after fading to achieve that in their pre¬vious two appearances, but Deschamps is mindful that a France riven by inter¬nal discord failed to progress from a similarly simple looldng group in unto. With his key swinger Franck Ribery ruled out for the tournament on Friday it served as a reminder to dm former Monaco, Marseille and Juventus mach that the ficIde finger of fortune could disrupt his plans right up fill the last minute.Deschamps, though, is looking no further than the fast ram&”I have to say that my fira ttarget ism win the first match,” he told Le Monde in May.”Because the last match we won in the group stage of a World Cup finals was in koo6. And even given all the specs that that I have for this country, it was against Togo. It is imperative to win the firstmatch in order to getyourseff fight into the competition.”The French though, are notoriously slow starters-they haven’t won their opening game at a World Cup finals sioee the 0998 edition-which gives Honduras a reason to be optimistic of pulling off a shock”It is rota curse,” Deschamps told Le Monde refening to the habit of failing to win their first game.”It is not the make or break game ei¬ther, but, in a four team group winning it leaves you with some margin for er¬ror in the second or third matches in order to achieve our goal of progressing from the group.” The Swish coached by veteran Ger¬man Ottmar Hiafeld, are Me FM seeds in the group and shouldbe favourites to join their trans-Alpine neighbours in the second round to make up for the disappointment of four years ago where, despite opening with a victory over eventual champions Spain, they failed to reach the knockout stage_ Hitzfeld, who will bring down the curtain on his stellar mashing career after the male, said his squad is a lot more talented than the one which went to South Africa and whose first est will come against Ecuador.”If I say to you that we arebetter than we werefouryears ago theneveryoneis going to expect on to qualify for the last 16,” said the 6.5l’ear-Md.”I am, however, by nature an opti¬mist and I say that we are better.” Ecuador coach Reinaldo Kuala is in the unusual position of having to play against the team he was in charge of at the last World Cup, Honduras.The Exuadoreans unit be keen to up¬set the perceived order and reach the second round as a fitting tribute to their late team- mate and leading striker Christian Benitez, who died Last year.
