France captain Lloris opens up on spat between Mbappe and Giroud

France captain Lloris opens up on spat between Mbappe and Giroud

 

France captain Hugo Lloris insisted there were no rifts in the camp as he played down the public spat between strikers Kylian Mbappe and Olivier Giroud.

The world champions begin their Euro 2020 campaign on Tuesday evening with a tantalising Group F clash against three-time winners Germany.

Chelsea man Giroud criticised the service of his team-mates after scoring twice as a substitute in last week’s 3-0 warm-up win over Bulgaria, with Paris Saint-Germain star Mbappe unhappy the matter was not kept private.

Goalkeeper Lloris brushed off the disagreement and believes France have a healthy team spirit going into their tournament opener in Munich.

‘Mbappe and Giroud they had maybe a short discussion but that’s normal – it’s nothing unusual,’ the 34-year-old said.

‘There are different opinions in the locker room, this can happen. It didn’t harm the team at all. We’ve a great team spirit. I think we dealt with it very well.

 

 

‘Kylian had to say something, but this is something he said in the past. We are focused now on our first match in this competition.’

Giroud, who is five goals short of matching Thierry Henry’s record haul of 51 for France, was brought on in the first half of that friendly in Paris due to Karim Benzema being withdrawn as an injury precaution.

France boss Didier Deschamps has a fully-fit squad to select from at the Allianz Arena, with Mbappe, Benzema, Giroud, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele among a wealth of attacking options.

Tottenham player Lloris believes the star-studded frontline will strike fear into the Germans, but stressed the team requires balance to be successful.

‘These are world-class players who have been playing at the top level,’ he said.

‘I understand that our opponents may be afraid of our attack and that we are praised for the attack we have.

‘But we can only achieve success through the collective. It will be important to keep the right balance and be focused against such a great opponent as Germany.’

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