FEATURE | Three things we learn as France’s B team impresses against Colombia
France’s B team made little work of Colombia’s A team courtesy of Marcus Thuram and a brace from Désiré Doué. France’s depth on showAs Thursday’s game against Brazil was used to fine-tune ...
FEATURE | Three things we learn as France’s B team impresses against Colombia France’s B team made little work of Colombia’s A team courtesy of Marcus Thuram and a brace from Désiré Doué. France’s depth on show As Thursday’s game against Brazil was used to fine-tune France’s current best XI , Didier Deschamps made no mystery of his intentions to use tonight’s encounter against Colombia to flex Les Bleus depth, and thus offering some of the players who are not yet certain to board the plane the chance to step up. Deschamps will have some headaches to solve, and hearts to break, given the remarkable collective and individual performances he saw at Landover’s Northwest Stadium.
Warren Zaïre-Emery, Maghnes Akliouche and Marcus Thuram have all seized their chances whereas Maxence Lacroix has certainly more than filled William Saliba’s absence. Meanwhile, Pierre Kalulu and Randal Kolo Muani may not have done enough to change Deschamps’ mind in the absences of Jules Koundé and Bradley Barcola. Rayan Cherki proving invaluable The Manchester City attacking midfielder was unsurprisingly given the nod to fill in for Michael Olise in France’s No.
10 role. The Lyon Academy graduate was an absolute joy to watch, linking up play with ease. Cherki also succeeded at evading Colombia’s press with his pace and his hypnotic touches.
Involved in both Désiré Doué goals, Cherki was logically singled out by Colombian players who more often than not fouled him. One of them even struck him in the face. That’s how insufferable Cherki is for opponents, and how invaluable he became for France, despite being part of the squad for less than a year.