Didier Deschamps defends rotation ahead of France’s ‘second competition’

Not one to back down from a challenge in his playing days, Didier Deschamps wasn't going to take a backward step here either.

"There were reasons for the players to be rested. Games are now 100-minutes long. These are my choices, and I stand by them," he said, the World Cup-winning player and coach of France reflecting after watching his defending champions slump to shock defeat to Tunisia in the final game of Group D.

Already assured of progressing and almost guaranteed to finish top of the group, Deschamps opted to make nine changes from the side that had become the first team in Qatar to qualify for the last-16 with the win over Denmark just four days previous.

It did not pay off, a new-look Les Blues comprehensively outplayed by a highly-motivated Tunisian team who knew a win and some help elsewhere would secure a first place in the knockout rounds in their history.

Wahbi Khazri thought he'd scored the goal to do it sliding in the only goal of the game just before the hour mark at Education City Stadium, only for Mathew Leckie's solo run and strike some 15 miles away against Denmark to instead put Australia through at Tunisia's expense.

The victory, a first over their former colonial power, was no less than the Eagles of Carthage deserved with a fresh-faced France - six of the nine players Deschamps brought in were aged 23 or younger - firmly second best from first minute to last. Indeed, it was only when the much-vaunted cavalry of Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele were introduced off the bench in the second-half that they ever looked like coming back.

Only Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate impressed of this second string, repelling the wave after wave of Tunisian pressure admirably with many around him faltering and failing their first audition on this grandest of stages.

So impressive in their opening two matches - wins over Australia and Denmark - this was a letdown performance from the reigning champions regardless of the personnel. But, with bigger tests now to come, Deschamps has no regrets.

“We can’t tick all the boxes. The first objective was the most important and that was to seal our place in the round of 16,” he added. “The 24 players won their first two games and lost the last one, but I need all 24 to be available for me in four days.

“A couple of them have been able to rest up, they will have fresh legs. We were coming out of two high-intensity games. We will play four games in 12 days, we needed a breath of fresh air. But we need to do better than we did. Yes, the opponent punished us and gave us a run for our money.

“I wasn’t underestimating the opponent, I wasn’t not taking the game seriously, I was thinking about the game that is waiting for us on Sunday.”

That next game comes in form of Poland at the Al Thumama Stadium and with no more second chances represents a step up in stakes from what came before it.

Deschamps believes the decision to save legs here, to "recharge the batteries" as he put it, will pay off with France's "second competition" only now just beginning.

"Some players were at risk and we had played two high intensity games. It allowed the others to see the difference, it is a World Cup match," he added.

"We've reached our goal, we will recover, a second competition will start."