Arsenal centre-back William Saliba aggravated a lingering again damage whereas taking part in towards Paris Saint-Germain within the Champions League closing final week. He stays a crucial doubt for the match itself and is definitively dominated out of this warm-up fixture, leaving a large void in Deschamps’ backline.
Dayot Upamecano will anchor the defence, with Ibrahima Konaté extensively anticipated to step into the beginning XI as he seeks a brand new membership.
Additional up the pitch, Manchester Metropolis’s Rayan Cherki is anticipated to get a golden alternative to cement his place in Deschamps’ match plans, beginning within the quantity 10 position behind Marcus Thuram. In the meantime, all eyes are on Kylian Mbappé, who stands only a single aim away from equaling Olivier Giroud’s all-time goalscoring document for France.
Ivory Coast must make do with out essential defensive pillars Evan Ndicka and Clement Akpa, who miss out via damage, leaving Ousmane Diomande and Guéla Doué to deal with the unenviable job of containing Mbappé and Michael Olise.
Predicted line-ups for France v Ivory Coast
France: Maignan; Koundé, Konate, Upamecano, T. Hernández; Tchouaméni, Rabiot; Dembélé, Cherki, Mbappé; Thuram
Ivory Coast: Y. Fofana; Singo, O. Diomande, Ndicka, Konan; Sangaré, Kessié, S. Fofana; Diallo, Y. Diomande, Adingra.
The place to look at France v Ivory Coast: TV and on-line streams
The match may be watched within the UK on Amazon via their Prime PPV service. The stream of the sport is right here and prices £2.99.
Stats for France v Ivory Coast
Kylian Mbappé is only one aim away from drawing degree with Olivier Giroud as France’s joint all-time high goalscorer.
France head into Thursday night time’s conflict on a formidable nine-game unbeaten streak, having scored at the very least two objectives in each single a kind of fixtures.
That is solely the fourth senior assembly between the 2 nations. France holds a slight historic benefit with two victories and one draw from their three earlier encounters. The newest conflict resulted in a decent 2-1 victory for France in a 2022 pleasant.
Ivory Coast have confirmed to be an exceptionally powerful nut to crack beneath Emerse Faé, navigating their whole World Cup qualifying marketing campaign utterly unbeaten
Prediction for France v Ivory Coast
With each managers managing workloads forward of the journey to North America, that is unlikely to rework into an chaotic, end-to-end shootout. Anticipate a extremely bodily, tactical battle.
The pure particular person high quality of Mbappé, Olise, and a hungry Cherki ought to give Les Bleus the slender edge on dwelling soil.
Prediction: France 2-1 Ivory Coast
