Didier Deschamps: ‘We’re going to present how proud we’re to be French’

The squad were exposed to the attacks when their match with Germany at the Stade de France was targeted, with a bystander and three suicide bombers dying in blasts outside the stadium.

“We did have a few doubt, some concerns about the game but at the end the president confirmed we had to play this game and I think like all my teammates we respect the decision and it will be a good opportunity to represent the French nation”, he said.

Lloris added: “The whole situation has been managed very well for us by the manager and backroom staff, as well as the president, and we are ready to play tomorrow”. We did not get back to Clairefontaine [the team’s base] until the small hours.

“It will be an opportunity for us to show character, through that game, and I will share this moment with all the English people”. We would have liked to spend time with our nearest and dearest ” Lloris said. Like all my team-mates, we respect his decision.

“Of course we are human”, Lloris said. We are here to represent our country and show that we are proud to be French in a historical stadium and I want to thank the English fans for their solidarity.

Nevertheless Deschamps, supported by captain Hugo Lloris, maintained a unified front, insisting that the squad would carry out the function demanded of them by the president of the French Football Federation to the best of their ability and with pride. But we have been together and each individual player has dealt with it in their own way.

“You never know what can happen but for us we have to assume we are safe on the pitch and hope we don’t have a repeat of what happened on Friday night”.

Asked at one point to describe how he felt about the jihadists who had carried out the attacks on Paris, Deschamps conceded that he could not find the words.

“The most important thing about the match is to be together, to be playing together, singing the Marseillaise together as one group”.

[Diarra lost his cousin in the attacks] “We players shared a moment with young lady”. I think we were in mourning, all together, spending time in Clairefontaine all together.

“They were also protected by the French state and, as we were the national team, quite apart from the problems of security that had to be guaranteed, I talked to (Germany coach) Joachim Low and other Germans and it was very important for me to stay there with them until we found a solution that was acceptable for them”.

We’re expecting the France head coach and captain of the 1998 World Cup winning side, Didier Deschamps, to speak to us at 5pm.

“All the players are coming”, the French team said in a statement, according to the BBC. He was on more certain ground when he borrowed from Lassana Diarra’s moving appeal for peace following the death of his cousin Asta Diakite.

The sister of another player, Antoine Griezmann, only just escaped with her life from the Bataclan theatre, where 89 people died watching a rock concert.