“We saw them a little bit on video. It will be the intensity of the World Cup,” Konate said.
“You have to take the heat into account, even if it is going to affect both teams. There are many teams that know that we have very fast attackers, they are sure to wait for us. But we have to wait for everything in this kind of game.”
It’s a bit to expect the two-time World Cup champions to be carefully aware of the low-profile people within Arnold’s team, with Australia ranked 38th in the world by FIFA, France number 4, and widely dismissed. as tournament cannon fodder. by international media.
Eduardo Camavinga faced Aaron Mooy’s Celtic in the UEFA Champions League.Credit:Getty
But Real Madrid’s Konate and Eduardo Camavinga, who headlined press conferences on Sunday (local time), have had relatively recent battles with two would-be Socceroos starters, and haven’t caught on yet.
Konate, who joined the Reds this season after four years with RB Leipzig, faced Mathew Leckie three times in the Bundesliga in his prime, before his departure for Melbourne City, and Camavinga went toe-to-toe with Celtic’s Aaron Mooy in the UEFA Champions League group stage.
Charging
It seems that neither player left an impression.
“No, I don’t know any of the players individually,” Konate said.
A question to Camavinga about his battles with the Scottish champions from Ange Postecoglou, meanwhile, may have been lost in translation, as the 20-year-old provided a broader courteous assessment of the Socceroos.
“It’s a very good team,” he said. “If they were able to qualify for the World Cup it is because they are a good team. We studied this team well with the coach and the coaching staff, and we expect to have a difficult game because they put us in trouble four years ago. We saw it in 2018, they put us in trouble, we worked on it, the coach warned us”.
Naturally, the big talking point in France is Benzema’s thigh injury, which has ruled him out of the entire tournament and increased the pressure on Mbappé’s shoulders to lead his attacking line.
“Kylian can do it. He is used to having everything on his back. He is used to receiving this pressure,” Camavinga said. “I’m not worried about him. On a day-to-day basis, he seems to be at ease and calm. If they think we are less scary [without Benzema], that depends on them. I don’t care what our opponents think of us.”