The French team will face Northern Ireland on June 8 in Lille for its final preparation match before heading to the United States and the 2026 World Cup (June 11-July 19), announced Thursday by the president of the French Football Federation, Philippe Diallo.
“We will play against Northern Ireland, who faced and were defeated by Italy during the playoffs on June 8 in Lille after facing Ivory Coast on June 4 in Nantes,” he detailed following an executive committee meeting of the FFF in Paris.
Departure for the United States on June 9:
Didier Deschamps’ team will depart on the afternoon of June 9 for the United States, where they will stay in Boston and train at Babson College, a private business school located about thirty minutes from the city center of Massachusetts.
As the top seed in Group I, the French team will play their three first-round matches on the East Coast of the United States, facing Senegal on June 16 in the New York suburbs, Iraq on June 22 in Philadelphia, and Norway on June 26 in Boston (all three matches will start at 9:00 PM Paris time). Didier Deschamps will reveal the list of selected players for the World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada, on May 14.
