Deschamps to His Stars: Remember Spain? They've Already Suffered Against Iraq

France's national team coach, Didier Deschamps, has issued a stern warning to his players: under no circumstances should they underestimate the Iraqi squad. The two teams are set to clash in Philadelphia on Monday night into Tuesday morning, in a Group I second-round match.

While on the surface there appears to be no comparison between "Les Bleus" and the 60th-ranked FIFA team, the coach urged his players to guard against any display of overconfidence or arrogance. "Don't dismiss them in your minds as a small team, because they are not," the Basque specialist declared in the locker room before training, his speech disseminated on Saturday across the French Football Federation's (FFF) social media channels.

The coach then elaborated to his players why they shouldn't take the "Lions of Mesopotamia" lightly: "Do you know Bolivia? A good South American team... They went and beat Mexico 2-1 (in a playoff tournament). And do you know Spain? Yes, it was a warm-up match, but they still drew (1-1). And in their first World Cup match against Norway, which is a good team, they were only down 1-2 until the 75th minute. After that, they conceded two late goals (final score 4-1 for the Norwegians)."

Capable of troubling major nations, Iraq could also pose problems for Kylian Mbappé and his teammates. "None of you should think it will be easy, just because we are the French team," Deschamps insisted. "Because other teams might have thought that. Big teams who have played against weaker opponents than Iraq. Those teams told themselves that sooner or later they would make the difference. But they failed. I don't want that to happen to us, to wait for things to happen on their own."

Finally, the coach listed Iraq's strengths: "A disciplined team that keeps things simple, a 4-4-2 formation with two giants in attack (Hussein and Al-Hamadi), quite technical players, and strong team spirit."