Didier Deschamps will therefore get the chance to oversee France's attempt at defending their World Cup crown in three years' time after they beat Croatia 4-2 in the final in Russia last year.

Didier Deschamps has urged Olivier Giroud to leave Chelsea to secure a spot in France's Euro 2020 squad. Giroud started up-front as Deschamps guided France to World Cup glory in 2018.

Bordeaux have joined Inter Milan in the race to sign Chelsea striker Giroud. The Ligue 1 side are interested in a loan deal for the 33-year-old, who has been given the go-ahead to leave in January,

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY CRAIG HOPE IN ORLANDO: The players of Montreal Impact tell us he still has that 'swagger'. And of course he does - he is Thierry Henry.

Brazil star Neymar, who joined PSG from Barcelona for £198million back in August 2017, is by far the division's top earner - pocketing around £2.6million a month before tax.

DANIEL MATTHEWS AT THE GROUPAMA STADIUM: A hero from 12 yards. Then the fall guy within 11 minutes. Life as a goalkeeper can be cruel - just ask Marseille's Yohann Pele.

Giroud was a target for a number of sides during the January transfer window including Inter Milan, Lazio and Tottenham Hotspur having fallen out of favour at Stamford Bridge.

SPECIAL REPORT BY DANIEL MATTHEWS IN LYON: To many in France, the 32-year-old is a footballing pariah. At Real Madrid, however, Benzema is approaching immortality.

Euro 2020 and all its preparations immediately take the focus once the domestic campaigns end. But this year the European Championship will also be followed by the Olympics in Tokyo.

As far as bizarre injury treatments go, Marseille striker Dario Benedetto's remedy for a head injury sustained against Amiens is right up there. The Argentine was bizarrely given a swimming cap.

The Frenchman has not been selected since a friendly against Russia in March 2018, and missed out on his country's victorious World Cup campaign in Russia a few months later.

Benzema took a swipe at Giroud as the 'go-kart' to his 'Formula One' to describe what he believes is a difference in quality between himself and Giroud, who replaced him in the France team.

It's 20 years since Russell Watson topped the charts with his debut album, The Voice, announcing himself to the world as the owner of the finest larynx this side of Luciano Pavarotti

Pinot Gris is the same grape as Pinot Grigio, but handled in a different way by the wine-grower. With lower yields and a longer time hanging on the vines, it develops bigger flavours and fuller texture

The Brits must strike a balance between male and female, black and white, sales and excellence. In the 40th edition, they fell at the first hurdle.

By and large, I rather admire the film career carved out by Steve Coogan, an actor to whom there's always been more than the admittedly ridiculously funny Alan Partridge.

It's rare that a prequel matches its progenitor, but Better Call Saul has gradually, at times achingly slo-o-o-wly, proved the equal of parent show Breaking Bad .

Work hard, make the people happy. That's what Rob Brydon does. There's nothing restless about him like his famous friends

Caroline was a mate of mine. We weren't close friends, but we got on well, frequently met up at showbiz bashes, and exchanged irregular text messages about life and the universe

If armies march on their stomachs, the same is true of the politicians who send them into war. Winston Churchill wouldn't have been half the man he was without the food made for him by his resident cook.

The BBC Radio 6 funk and soul DJ and star of sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf is talking about the heart attack he suffered in his home two years ago, which he is speaking of publicly for the first time

Herbert von Karajan, who died in 1989, shifted 200 million albums - an astonishing figure for a classical musician.

Heartbreak can be the best teacher, as arts journalist Alice Vincent learns in her hopeful memoir of self-discovery and horticulture.

Spring is round the corner, and it's time to crack open the scented whites. While some grapes have the aromatic impact of a ram raid on the Duty Free perfume counter, others are more subtle

Fans can exhale - the final instalment of Mantel's trilogy is a cracker: powerful, propulsive and amply worth the eight-year wait. Despite topping 900 pages, it spans just four years.

The latest domestic thriller is Flesh And Blood , and already it's getting mixed up in my head with Liar, Cheat, Trust Me, Trauma, Gold Digger , etc. Their formats are so similar

Moving into the White House, which had just been built in the middle of a rutted field, America's second president, John Adams, prayed: 'May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof.'

'In my whole career there's only one person I interviewed who I didn't like and was rude to me,' Gaby Roslin says, before anticipating the next question. 'And no, I won't tell you who it was!'

Bob Geldof is speaking about his daughter Peaches, who died from a drug overdose in 2014, aged 25, and has become overwhelmed by emotion. 'She was lovely,' Geldof says

There are several good reasons for seeing this spirited revival of Anthony Minghella's 2005 Madam Butterfly , and one totally compelling one: the Welsh soprano Natalya Romaniw.

Today is International Women's Day and there are plenty of talented women creating brilliant wine around the world, so let's celebrate them

Steve Martin and Martin Short are crossing the Atlantic for The Funniest Show In Town At The Moment - a series of live dates in the UK and Ireland

So I regard the Philips OLED+984 Ambilight with wistful longing. There's little point in bringing such a majestic device into a home where the biggest workout it's going to get is Paw Patrol binges

It's a bold move, naming a restaurant Paradise. What with all those images of eternal bliss, celestial perfection and heavenly libations whisked from the tears of an angel

Based on the book Twelve Patients: Life And Death At Bellevue Hospital, this medical drama stars Ryan Eggold as the new medical director at one of America's oldest public hospitals.

Set in rural Tennessee in the period after the Civil War, A Thousand Moons is a strange and beautiful story, narrated by a young Native American girl who has been adopted by two Irishmen.

A revival of Josie Rourke's Olivier-winning production of the Hollywood musical, featuring the stage debut of Nicola Roberts.

Marie Curie died in 1934, aged 66, of anaemia brought on by exposure to high levels of radiation; she was ultimately a victim of the discovery she had made

Huge news: I've won Heat magazine's Secret Crush award for the second year running. Heat revealed I scooped a staggering two-thirds of all votes cast

The film year is not quite the same as the calendar year, effectively running from one Oscar ceremony - this year's was in early February - to the next.

Like Bob Dylan, whose songs he sings so well, Bryan Ferry has gone from being a bit of a recluse to an unstoppable old trouper. At 74, he is on the road for the eighth year in a row.

If you've ever wondered how the 1990 movie Pretty Woman, which made a fairytale romcom out of a rich-man-meets-prostitute premise, would fare in the age of #MeToo - well, this production won't help.

The Oscar-winning writer was responsible for five 007 classics: Thunderball, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man With The Golden Gun, Surrender from Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough

By day, Julia Ebner worked for the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue, monitoring the online behaviour of extremist groups from Islamic jihadists to Neo-Nazis.

Every week on this fun new podcast by Susannah Constantine (of Trinny fame), a guest digs into his or her relationship with their wardrobe.

Mention 1996 to a music-lover and they will probably think of Oasis or the Spice Girls. But those bands, huge though they were, only had Britain's second- and third- biggest-selling albums of the year.

Amazingly, this is the first exhibition of Aubrey Beardsley's work at the Tate since 1923.

'You look like a Teletubby!' These are words no man wants to hear. I suppose at least they didn't say I looked like the one with the handbag. I'll admit that Grado's headphones are on the large side

For the most part, Kate Fall regards her role as a memoirist as an extension of her job as gatekeeper: to present the polished face of the Cameron administration to the world

Smith is emerging as one of the great chroniclers of America's dispossessed. Blackwood starts with a family of vagrants pitching up in a small Mississippi town and ends in inevitable tragedy.