France team: Zinédine Zidane very satisfied with his debut

Zizou opens up about his emotions after the first match

Europe Today at 06:20

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France team: Zinédine Zidane very satisfied with his debut

25.09.26 FT UEFA Nations League A

Turkiye

France

On Friday evening, Zinédine Zidane finally took charge of his first match as France manager.

The French coach secured a 1-0 victory away to Turkey in the Nations League. A baptism of fire that Zizou considers a success. "There are a lot of emotions for a first match. A successful first match. It's not easy to come and play in Turkey, with a complicated atmosphere. We played the match we needed to. We didn't let our opponent play and we played well ourselves. We managed to press quite high up the pitch and we brought intensity. I saw plenty of interesting things even though we had only had three and a half training sessions. It's encouraging. I'm happy with what my players did," the manager told TF1.

🚨 𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗞𝗡𝗢𝗪: Zinedine Zidane is the first French national team manager to win his first match since 1994.

Aimé Jacquet was the last to ever do it, and after him, 5 managers held the position before Zizou, with all losing their first match. pic.twitter.com/Iib51q0lWq
— The Touchline | 𝐓 (@TouchlineX) September 26, 2026

Zinédine Zidane was also pleased with his attack. "Happy with my attack? Yes, of course. Their movements show that we can play in different ways. Kylian started on the left, then moved into the centre, and even to the right. The others also moved around a lot. It was good to see that, it was good to see everyone, even those who didn't play. It was really very interesting," the 54-year-old coach told TF1.

Joshua SOSSOU

Editorfr, en, ar

As a sports fan, and particularly a football fan, I've been putting my writing talent to good use for a number of years now to promote African talent and the continent's football in general. On Foot Africa, enjoy reading each of my lines.