World Cup 2026: N’Golo Kante still important for France – Olivier Giroud

As I said before, balance was very important to our success in Russia. I described our France team at the time as ‘complete’ because we had character but we were strong.

Is this France team the same? We will have to wait to find out.

All the ingredients are there but will it all come together in pitch? They’ve got everything they need in defence, midfield and attack, but now they just have to write their story, their history.

In 2018 we did our work. Now they have to do their job.

It’s a new generation and they’re very talented – but with that comes a lot of expectations and pressure. And anything can happen in football.

In the 2002 World Cup, we came as holders and European champions. We had an amazing team but our tournament was a mess and we didn’t make it to the knockout stages.

The first game is always very important. It doesn’t matter how you play – we needed a lucky goal to beat Australia in 2018 – but the important thing was we won.

This time we start against the same team we lost to at the start of the 2002 World Cup, Senegal.

We know them well and we know we have to start strongly to beat them on Tuesday. Next is Iraq, and we have to win that, but we have to have six points before we play Norway, who are dangerous underdogs for me, so there’s not too much pressure on us.

It’s a tricky group and a win is probably enough for us to reach third place if we need to, come on – we all know France have to do more than that.

We need to finish the top, set the pace, make a statement and figure out the level we need next. Our journey begins now, and I can’t wait.

Olivier Giroud was speaking to BBC Sports’ Chris Bevan