Arsenal centre-back William Saliba aggravated a lingering again damage whereas enjoying towards Paris Saint-Germain within the Champions League ultimate final week. He stays a essential doubt for the event 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’ event plans, beginning within the quantity 10 function 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 file for France.
Ivory Coast should make do with out essential defensive pillars Evan Ndicka and Clement Akpa, who miss out by 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 will be watched within the UK on Amazon by their Prime PPV service. The stream of the sport is here and prices £2.99.
Stats for France v Ivory Coast
- Kylian Mbappé is only one aim away from drawing stage with Olivier Giroud as France’s joint all-time high goalscorer.
- France head into Thursday evening’s conflict on a powerful nine-game unbeaten streak, having scored at the very least two targets in each single a type 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 led to a good 2-1 victory for France in a 2022 pleasant.
- Ivory Coast have confirmed to be an exceptionally robust nut to crack below Emerse Faé, navigating their total World Cup qualifying marketing campaign fully unbeaten
Prediction for France v Ivory Coast
With each managers managing workloads forward of the journey to North America, that is unlikely to remodel into an chaotic, end-to-end shootout. Count on 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 residence soil.
Prediction: France 2-1 Ivory Coast
