This Sunday, Equipe de France will play Croatia in the quarter-finals of the Nations League at 20:45 (UTC+1) at the Stade de France. On the eve of the match, Le Parisien and L’Equipe tried to guess the team that will be fielded by coach Didier Deschamps. The match will involve 4 Paris Saint-Germain players on the French side: Warren Zaïre-Emery, Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué and Bradley Barcola. Dembélé will be the sole starter, and will continue to play in the center of the park, despite a number of changes since the 2-0 defeat in the first leg.
Le Parisien et L’Equipe (4-3-3) –
Mbappé – Dembélé – Olise
Camavinga – Tchouaméni – Koné
T. Hernandez – Saliba – Upamecano – Koundé
Maignan.
All the media agree on this team, so suspense is limited. Especially as Didier Deschamps is not in the habit of surprising the press. Dembélé could therefore continue in the same role as at PSG, even if the layout is inevitably different.
Interestingly, there could be permutations with Mbappé and Olise. This will depend on how the team is organised. You have to bear in mind that the midfield profile is more defensive than that of Paris, and there will no doubt be fewer deep throws. All the same, we can expect something more incisive and spectacular than in the first leg.
We hope that the Parisians on the bench will be able to get into the game, especially Doué, who could bring a nice dose of creativity and avoid the disappointment of a first call-up for 0 minutes’ play. It would also be nice if Dembélé could take a breather by not playing the whole match.
