England are the team who can ‘threaten super favourites France’ at Euro 2020, claims Arsene Wenger – but the ex-Arsenal boss warns the world champions ‘have not peaked’
- France are ranked as the second-best team in the world, behind leaders Belgium
- Didier Deschamps’ side won the 2018 World Cup and still have a young squad
- Iconic former Arsenal boss Wenger stated the world champions can still improve
- But he backed England as the most dangerous team facing France at Euro 2020
Arsene Wenger backed England as the team who can most threaten ‘super favourites’ France at the European Championship, but has warned that the defending world champions have not yet reached their peak.
Didier Deschamps’ side won the 2018 World Cup in Russia, are ranked second in the world behind Belgium – a team they beat in the semi-finals in 2018 – and are widely seen as favourites for the Euro 2020 tournament, which starts on Friday.
Legendary former Arsenal manager Wenger told Sky Sports that with so many young players, Les Bleus could still improve, stating the side had 11 players on the bench who would make most other international teams’ starting line-ups.
France are ‘super favourites’ to win the European Championship, according to Arsene Wenger
The legendary former Arsenal boss warned that Didier Deschamps’ side have not peaked yet
He said: ‘They are not the favourites, they are the super favourite. Favourite is not big enough, because when you win the World Cup and then you have in your team (N’Golo) Kante, (Paul) Pogba, (Karim) Benzema, (Antoine) Griezmann, (Kingsley) Coman, (Olivier) Giroud, I forget half of them. (Ousmane) Dembele.
‘You will have on the bench 11 players who would play basically in any other national team. So you cannot refuse the fact that you are world champion and it’s a team which has not peaked.
‘It’s a team that’s still going up, because they’re all young these guys. Apart from two or three, the core of the team is very young.’
But Wenger called Gareth Southgate’s England the biggest threat to France at Euro 2020
Marcus Rashford captained England to a 1-0 victory in a friendly against Romania on Sunday
Wenger, who is FIFA’s chief of global football development, went on to describe Gareth Southgate’s England as the biggest threat in the competition to France, who lost 1-0 to Portugal in the Euro 2016 final.
He added: ‘The English team is the team who can most threaten France. They have top quality players. They are maybe still a bit young, some of them, but with Mason Mount, (Phil) Foden, (Jack) Grealish, Declan Rice and of course Harry Kane and some experienced players like (Jordan) Henderson, they can compete with France.’
France kick off their campaign against Germany on June 15 before taking on Hungary and Portugal in the ‘Group of Death,’ with England opening against Croatia at Wembley on June 13. The pair could face each other in the round of 16, depending on results.