Didier Deschamps downplays pressure on France ahead of World Cup debut against Senegal

Didier Deschamps wants everyone to relax. Ahead of France’s 2026 FIFA World Cup opener against Senegal on June 16 at the New York/New Jersey Stadium, the veteran coach used his pre-match press conference to swat away any talk of ghosts, grudges, or unfinished business from 2002.

That year, defending champions France were humiliated by Senegal in the group stage. It remains one of the great World Cup upsets. Deschamps, speaking on June 15 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, made his position clear.

“We have no thoughts of revenge.”

Instead, Deschamps emphasized humility, squad depth, and avoiding the kind of complacency that sinks favorites. France enters the tournament as one of the pre-tournament favorites.

Crypto meets the World Cup: Kraken, Chiliz, and prediction markets

Kraken was announced as FIFA’s official crypto exchange supporter in June 2026, a first for the tournament.

Then there’s the fan engagement layer. Chiliz, the blockchain platform behind fan tokens for dozens of football clubs, powers tokenized fan interactions across the sport. There is no official fan token for the French national team. Clubs like Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona have tokens, but national teams have been slower to adopt.

ADI Predictstreet, FIFA’s official prediction market partner, uses Chainlink oracles to feed real-time data into decentralized betting platforms. Chainlink’s oracle network pulls verified match data onto the blockchain, where smart contracts handle the rest. ADI Predictstreet has already registered hundreds of millions in trading volume on World Cup outcomes.

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