France predicted XI v Italy: William Saliba and Christopher Nkunku to start with Ibrahima Konaté expected to captain Les Bleus | OneFootball

France national team boss Didier Deschamps is expected to shuffle his side for Les Bleus’ final Nations League group stage against Italy, this Sunday evening at Milan’s San Siro. Italy and France have both booked their ticket for the tournament quarter-finals, with Italy currently topping the A2 group. France need to beat La Squadra with a 3-goal margin to win the group. Deschamps is expected to experiment with a different system after Thursday’s dour and goalless stalemate against Israel.

Eduardo Camavinga, Warren Zaïre-Emery and N’Golo Kanté are to drop to the bench with Adrien Rabiot and Manu Koné partnering up for a double midfield pivot. Up front, Randal Kolo Muani is expected to make way for Marcus Thuram, who knows a thing or two about scoring goals at San Siro. Chelsea’s Christopher Nkunku is set to accompany the son of Lilian Thuram as an attacking midfielder or as a second striker.

L’Equipe understands that William Saliba will start at the expense of Dayot Upamecano. The Arsenal centre-back will team up with Ibrahima Konaté. The Liverpool defender is expected to wear the skipper’s armband should Kanté drop to the bench. As is customary for the France captain, Konaté faced the media for this Saturday’s pre-match press conference with Deschamps.

France likely line-up v Italy

Mike Maignan; Théo Hernandez, William Saliba, Ibrahima Konaté, Jules Koundé; Manu Koné, Adrien Rabiot; Michael Olise, Christopher Nkunku, Kingsley Coman;  Marcus Thuram. (L’Éq)

GFFN | Bastien Cheval