Canada head coach Jesse Marsch says France have some of the world’s best players “in every position” as he prepares his team for the daunting task of trying to stop Kylian Mbappe and company.
The teams meet in Bordeaux on Sunday night in what acts as their final warm-up game before the European Championship for France and the Copa America for Canada.
Marsch’s team lost 4-0 to the Netherlands on Thursday night and will look for a positive performance and result before they face Argentina in their first Copa America game on June 21.
“It’s a team that is incredibly powerful and gifted, obviously high level talent, best in the world in almost every position, or in the category of best in the world in every position,” Marsch said of Les Blues, who beat Luxembourg 3-0 on Wednesday in Metz.
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“They will challenge us in every single way of anything that we want to do on the pitch, but the key for us is to stay strong, and clear and never allow their ability to play to make us unstable.
“We’ve already started to help the players understand how we think we can be successful on the day. If we allow the game to get open and allow their individual talent to shine all over the pitch, for any team that’s a recipe for disaster.
“We’ll try and be incredibly organised but we’ll try not to be passive. What a challenge but what a great opportunity. I expect our players to be up for it.”
Porto midfielder Stephen Eustaquio will captain Canada and he believes the side are capable of producing a shock result.
Eustaqio is key for Canada’s hopes in this summer’s Copa America (Mohammad Karamali/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
“We’re a very young team but we’re very motivated,” the 27-year-old said. “We have been wishing for games like this in the past couple of years.
“Obviously it’s been hard to get this type of competition. It was a great lesson learned against the Dutch — although we lost 4-0 it was very good for us to play at that level.
“I think we’re capable of surprising. It’s football, XI v XI.”
(Rene Nijhuis/MB Media/Getty Images)
