It’s actually not too long since France last played Ukraine. Didier Deschamps’ side ran out 7-1 winners in a friendly back in October, so Andriy Shevchenko and his side will be hoping for a somewhat improved showing tonight.
FRANCE (4-2-3-1): Hugo Lloris; Lucas Hernandez, Presnel Kimpembe, Raphael Varane, Benjamin Pavard; Adrien Rabiot, N’Golo Kante; Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann, Kingsley Coman; Olivier Giroud.
SUBS: Leo Dubois, Wissam Ben Yedder, Thomas Lemar, Ousmane Dembele, Mike Maignan, Paul Pogba, Moussa Sissoko, Anthony Martial, Lucas Digne, Clement Lenglet, Kurt Zouma, Steve Mandanda.
UKRAINE (4-5-1): Georgi Bushchan; Vitalii Mykolenko, Sergey Krivtsov, Mykola Matvyenko, Illia Zabarnyi; Ruslan Malinovskiy, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Serhiy Sydorchuk, Oleksandr Karavaev, Mykola Shaparenko; Roman Yaremchuk.
SUBS: Yevhen Konoplyanka, Andriy Pyatov, Moraes, Oleksandr Syrota, Marlos Bonfim, Bogdan Mykhaylichenko, Anatolii Trubin, Eduard Sobol, Yukhym Konoplia, Evgeniy Makarenko, Viktor Kovalenko, Oleksandr Zubkov.
That France team is strong, isn’t it? Mbappe recovers from a knock in PSG’s recent game against Lyon to start, but Pogba only makes the bench after some injury struggles of his own. Viktor Tsygankov, who scored Ukraine’s goal in the 7-1 defeat here last year, is out injured while star man Andriy Yarmolenko also misses out.
France finished top of Group A in qualifying for the 2018 World Cup, finishing ahead of Sweden and the Netherlands with 23 points from their 10 games. Ukraine have only qualified once, in 2006, when they were beaten in the quarter-finals by eventual winners Italy.
COMMENTS