France will be keen to represent their colours with more pride than ever when they take the field in a friendly against England at Wembley four days after the deadly attacks in Paris, coach Didier Deschamps said yesterday.

The decision to play the highly emotional game was taken on Saturday morning by French federation president Noel Le Graet and Deschamps.

“We are here now to take the field to represent our country probably with even more pride than we normally would and to make sure that our colours, blue, white, and red, will be represented with more pride,” Deschamps told a news conference at Wembley.

“It will be much more than a sports event. We are here to represent our country and show that we are proud to be French in a historical stadium and I want to thank the English fans for their solidarity.

“It will be an emotional game.”

Les Bleus were playing Germany at the Stade de France on Friday when three explosions were heard outside the stadium as suicide bombers blew themselves up, killing one.

“We were focused on our game on Friday,” said Deschamps.

“We were told what happened at the end of the match.”

Players and staff stayed inside the stadium with their German counterparts until late in the night before they decided the England friendly should go ahead as scheduled.

“To play or not to play we had doubts but the situation was well managed by the coach and the president,” said captain and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.

“It will be a great moment of solidarity. The last three days have been traumatic. We mourned, together.”

Solidarity

Before the news conference, British reporters laid flowers with a note saying “Vive la France”, one of many signs of solidarity that have been made all over the world.

Wembley fans have been urged to sing the French national anthem, with a few British newspapers printing the lyrics of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise.