Off the wire
• Loew looking for a leader and has found a candidate from Real Madrid  • 1st LD: Pedro Pablo Kuczynski wins Peru's presidential election  • Saskatchewan, Quebec top Canadian jurisdictions for mining investment  • Bus carrying students in Brazil crashes, killing 18  • Messi to start against Panama  • Feature: Chinese surgeon's laparoscopic surgery performance receives applause  • Argentine forward Higuain cautions care against Panama  • U.S. stocks end lower on oil slide  • 5 out of 10 child laborers in Mexico work with no pay  • Chicago agricultural commodities close lower as U.S. dollar rises  
You are here: 　 Home

France don' t feel like favorites, says skipper Lloris ahead of Euro 2016 opener

Xinhua, June 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

France captain Hugo Lloris declined to tag his team as one of the favorites as the hosts set to kick off Euro 2016 against Romania at Stade de France on Friday.

"We don't feel like favourites at all. We haven't done anything, we haven't proved anything thus far," said Lloris at Thursday' s pre-match press conference.

"Playing on home soil gives us a positive and we have to make the most of that. We have won nine of our last 10 matches at home and that gives us a degree of confidence but everything still needs to be done."

Les Bleus, who won the 1984 Euros and 1998 World Cup on home soil, have not played a competitive match for two years with an automatic berth into the 24-team tournament, since losing to the eventual winners Germany in the World Cup quarterfinals.

They registered friendly wins, however, over the likes of Germany, Portugal, Russia and the Netherlands in the last 12 months.

"There's a lot of expectation. We know the importance of this match, how important it is to make a good start," said Lloris. "We've played friendlies for two years and there have been a lot of positives, but things start for real tomorrow."

Branding Euro 2016 "the most important competition of all of our careers" , the 29-year-old goalkeeper insisted that France have to work hard to live up to the expectations.

"Listen, I won't hide the fact from you that this morning we felt something different because we left Clairefontaine (France' s training base) and came across some fans as we checked into the team hotel," Lloris told reporters.

"There was a rise in our adrenaline levels. There are expectations and we are looking forward to tomorrow. Clearly it's the most important competition of all of our careers. If you were to ask that same question to my teammates they would answer in the same fashion.

"As long as we have this spirit, the hunger to win tackles I have no doubts," he added.

Starting the quadrennial event on Friday against Romania, France will also take on Albania and Switzerland in the Group A of the June 10-July 10 tournament with 51 matches in total to be played in 10 stadiums around the country. Endit