An experienced player, the leader of the French team's defense, those are shortcripts about Rafael Varane in this tournament. If Les Bleus advance to the final, Varane, Kylian Mbappe, Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann and coach Didier Deschamp will be the ones to reach the World Cup final twice in a row, thereby having the opportunity to win the championship twice in a row.
Before the tournament, Varane suffered a serious injury in Manchester United's clash with Chelsea on October 22. Concerns have come as the centre-back is at risk of missing out on the World Cup in Qatar. In the end, the former Real Madrid star only missed the first match, the remaining matches in the group stage did not play all the matches to save energy. In the end, he led the French defense in the 2 past knockout matches and the result was as expected.
When France led Poland 1-0 in the match in the round of 16 in the final minutes of the first half, feeling that something was not right, Varane was the one who reminded his teammates to change the playing style in the remaining 45 minutes. Finally, France scored 2 more goals and easily won the final 3-1. The calmness, seeing the team's problems right on the field is Varane's strength. In his first starting match at the 2022 World Cup against Denmark, he also made similar contributions to help France quickly pass the group stage.
This time, Varane will be joined by quite new partners such as Jules Kounde, Dayot Upamecano or Theo Hernandez. His responsibility is to guide, control and help the juniors mature through each match. Finally, everything is going in the right direction.
"When facing an opponent who is difficult to play like Poland, I felt I needed a boost for the team. If the game needs to be slowed down, I think I can do it in the best way. What the players discussed in the dressing room at half-time was very important, we could face adversity.
At the time of the injury in the match against Chelsea, I thought everything about the 2022 World Cup was over. However, after the medical team said, as long as I focus on recovering seriously, the chance to play in the World Cup still exists. I'm happy about that and happy that I'm standing here" - Varane shared.
Another difficulty Varane had to go through was how to return to the Deschamps squad when Ibrahima Konate and Upamecano played very well in the first match. Deschamps also received a lot of pressure from the French media to keep this central defender pair. However, Deschamp's choice was still Varane afterwards.
During his tenure at Les Bleus, Deschamps only once left Varane out of the starting lineup, which was against Ecuador in the 2014 World Cup. After that, the M.U center back missed EURO 2016 due to injury. From the 2018 World Cup, EURO 2020 to the 2022 World Cup, Varane has always started if he is not injured or his health is guaranteed.
This shows the importance of Varane to Deschamp in every diagram used. With this classy centre-back, Deschamps seems to have relieved his worries about a young, talented but inexperienced defense. Varane's return is a statement from France, they are ready to welcome all attacks in this year's tournament.
Argentina has reached the final and Varane's experience in confrontations with Messi in La Liga will be a valuable thing for Les Bleus if they get to the final match.
