As part of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, the French national team played against Azerbaijan at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium this Sunday and secured a 3-1 victory. Four Paris Saint-Germain players, all French, were in the match: Lucas Chevalier, Lucas Hernandez, Warren Zaïre-Emery, and Bradley Barcola. Here are the French players’ player ratings from the press.
Le Parisien:
Mateta (6)
Ekitike (4) – Nkunku (5.5) – Akliouche (7)
Thuram (6) – Zaïre-Emery (6.5)
T. Hernandez (6) – L. Hernandez (5) – Konaté (5) – Gusto (7)
Chevalier (4.5)
L’Equipe:
Mateta (6)
Ekitike (4) – Nkunku (6) – Akliouche (7)
Thuram (7) – Zaïre-Emery (7)
T. Hernandez (5) – L. Hernandez (4) – Konaté (4) – Gusto (7)
Chevalier (4)
Unsurprisingly, the average rating isn’t very high for this victory in Azerbaijan, which, while not uninteresting, wasn’t brilliant. Some players stood out positively, such as Zaïre-Emery, Thuram, Gusto, and Akliouche. Others, including Lucas Hernandez, Chevalier, and Ekitike, didn’t really impress. Even though the latter wasn’t helped by being repositioned on the left.
It remains to be seen what the potential consequences will be for future squad selections, given that the match had no real sporting significance and the complete rotation of the squad lacked cohesion.
