Hugo Lloris: Pogba will improve

The Juventus midfielder produced a below-par display in Friday's tournament-opening 2-1 defeat of Romania, leading to reports that he and Antoine Griezmann will be left out for Wednesday's clash with Albania in Marseille.

Published : Jun 15, 2016 12:14 IST , Marseille

"Paul, like the rest of the team, will improve as the tournament goes on. I don't have any doubts that at the key moments in the upcoming games he will come to the fore," said Lloris.
"Paul, like the rest of the team, will improve as the tournament goes on. I don't have any doubts that at the key moments in the upcoming games he will come to the fore," said Lloris.
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"Paul, like the rest of the team, will improve as the tournament goes on. I don't have any doubts that at the key moments in the upcoming games he will come to the fore," said Lloris.

France captain Hugo Lloris has backed Paul Pogba to improve as Euro 2016 goes on.

The Juventus midfielder produced a below-par display in Friday's tournament-opening 2-1 defeat of Romania, leading to reports that he and Antoine Griezmann will be left out for Wednesday's clash with Albania in Marseille.

But Tottenham goalkeeper Lloris has backed the 23-year-old to come good.

He said: "I can't comment on whether there have been talks with Paul or not but clearly we can expect a bit more from the player. That was our first match, everyone was still finding their feet and the main thing was that we won.

"Paul, like the rest of the team, will improve as the tournament goes on. I don't have any doubts that at the key moments in the upcoming games he will come to the fore."

France has failed to beat Albania in its last two friendly meetings and Lloris will not be taking Gianni De Biasi's men lightly at the Stade Velodrome.

He added: "There won't be any surprises, we know the opposition very well. We had a really hard time of it in the two recent games with them. We lost in Albania so we know what kind of game to expect and it's on us to be enterprising.

"We have to up our intensity to cause them problems and now allow them to have chances at set-pieces. They scored like that against us in Rennes and then from a direct free-kick in the game in Albania."

Lloris is expecting France to up its performance from the Romania game after admitting it was not at the level he expected.

"The positive aspect is that took all three points and it got us up and running in the competition," he said.

"We know a few things need improving, particularly regards ball possession, we weren’t neat and tidy on the technical side, we missed a lot of passes but we were a little bit nervous as it was the opening game."

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