Following an abysmal World Cup campaign, Blanc named an experimental side that lost 2-1 in Norway in Wednesday's friendly.

"We had a lot of things to do and little time to do it," said the 1998 World Cup winner.

"We needed to put into place a playing system and a new philosophy and we needed to be competitive. We nearly made it.

"What I can tell you is some of the players you saw tonight will play on September 3 (against Belarus)."