Didier Deschamps will communicate this Thursday (2 p.m.) the names of the players selected for the next three qualifying matches for the Blues for the 2022 World Cup. He could do without Olivier Giroud.
After the failure at Euro 2021, the French team will return to school in September with three qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar: on September 1 against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Strasbourg, on September 4 against the Ukraine in Kiev and on September 7 against Finland in Lyon-Decines. Didier Deschamps, who was reinforced in his functions by Noël Le Graët, will unveil his list this Thursday at 2 p.m.
A long-awaited list after the premature elimination in the round of 16 of the Euro and especially after the last ten terrible minutes against the Swiss with two goals conceded before elimination on penalties. This failure is still very much in the mind of the coach but also the players if we are to believe the words of captain Hugo Lloris in The team: “This Euro is the story of a badly managed match (…) the most important thing is to get us all back together”.
Deschamps is not a jack of all trades in victories or defeats, but he also likes to send a few messages. From a list of 26 players at the last Euro, the coach should return to something more normal, 23 or even 24 players taking into account the coronavirus still present but also because of injured players.
Giroud not sure to be called
“There are always pages that turn”, he said recently in The team. It is therefore to be expected that some will no longer be called. There is the idea of renewing the hierarchy among the goalkeepers with Hugo Lloris (Tottenham) and Mike Maignan (AC Milan) in front of Steve Mandanda, or even the possibility of replacing the OM goalkeeper. Mathematically, to go from 26 to 23 players, it would be necessary to remove a defender, a midfielder and an attacker without taking into account the injured.
Kurt Zouma (Chelsea), Moussa Sissoko (Tottenham) and Olivier Giroud (AC Milan) are the names most often cited within the staff and who may not be called up at first for the next rally. For the neo-Milanese Giroud, it would not be final while waiting to see his future performances in Serie A and especially in the Champions League which could allow him to return to blue.
There are also players injured or who play little or not at the start of the season: Benjamin Pavard (Bayern Munich), Lucas Hernandez (Bayern Munich), Adrien Rabiot (Juventus), Corentin Tolisso (Bayern Munich), Ousmane Dembélé (FC Barcelona) and Marcus Thuram (Borussia Mönchengladbach).
The thought exists in the mind of the coach to take the opportunity to make some openings: Nordi Mukiele (RB Leipzig), Jordan Veretout (AS Rome), Aurélien Tchouaméni (Monaco) or even Moussa Diaby (Leipzig), Amine Gouiri (Nice) and Odsonne Edouard (Celtic), among the players never called whose names have been circulating in the past 48 hours. But it is especially Théo Hernandez (AC Milan) who has the best chances of making his entry into the group.
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