Al-Khelaifi and Nzonzi visit, 300 children represent… the first hard training for the blues

6:35 p.m., Doha’s humid, even suffocating heat subsides as the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium finally lights up. Blues is here. There is a school atmosphere in the stands. Not every day you can applaud the reigning world champions. Especially when you are ten years old and you live in Doha.

Three hundred French children from the city’s schools had the opportunity to attend this Thursday the first collective training session of the French team on Qatari soil. Open to the press, this session was held in a friendly atmosphere. Something to please Nasser Al-Khelaifi, Noel Le Graet and Stephen Nzonzi, who were present for the occasion and are happy as they did not attend any trauma. Almost a miracle these days at the Blues, even if Olivier Giroud had time to excite the staff with a devastating left footed kick that he ended up grimacing on the ground.

Chuameni is back, good news of the day

The session began with two walk-through exercises. If Aurélien Chouameni remained on the field of subsequent opposition – he shortened his session on Tuesday – then Raphael Varane and Karim Benzema still stood apart. The two men spent an hour with physical education coach Cyril Moyne. Smiles of austerity for former Real Madrid teammates, but we will wait for physical guarantees. The attacker is hit in the left thigh (quadriceps muscle), the defender is hit in the right hamstring.

The few sprints achieved do not give confidence in their current state of form and especially in regards to their future health. They barely touched the ball, didn’t hit, and ended up sitting on the mats, repeating stretches. Opposing them, the other 24 players of the national team played half the court with a certain intensity.

Five short days separate Didier Deschamps’ group from the first match against Australia on Tuesday 22 November (20:00). This Friday, training will again take place at the end of the day. On the other hand, from Saturday to Monday, the Blues will train later. The session will start at 21:00 to accommodate as much as possible for the first match, scheduled an hour later (22:00 local time) twenty kilometers away. The temperature should drop a little more.