Deschamps asks France to raise their game

France coach Didier Deschamps is impatient for success at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, telling UEFA.com: "The last good result achieved by a French national team was [reaching] the final in 2006. That's eight years ago – that's quite a while now."

Having taken command following spells in charge of AS Monaco FC, Juventus and Olympique de Marseille, the 45-year-old guided Les Bleus to Brazil via a play-off against Ukraine, and while admitting it was a challenge adjusting to the different demands of national-team coaching, Deschamps is eager to re-establish France on the world footballing map this summer.

"We are 16th in the FIFA rankings," he said. "We were eliminated in the quarter-finals at the last EURO by Spain, who then became European champions. The last good result achieved by a France team was 2006. Generations are changing, young players are coming in with a lot of skill. We will need to prove ourselves at the World Cup this summer."

Like his predecessor Laurent Blanc, Deschamps was part of France's only World Cup-winning squad, on home soil in 1998, and would love to see a new generation of players enjoy similar celebrations to those that greeted his side's 3-0 victory over Brazil at the Stade de France 16 years ago. "We knew we were achieving something extraordinary," he recalled. "We realised it in the stadium, but even more later when we had the parade down the Champs-Elysées. [The celebrations] lasted quite a while, because it was the first World Cup win and it was in France as well ... It will remain the first one, but hopefully not the last."

To hear more from Deschamps, click on the video player above.