Zidane: France Will Be Competitive, I Learned a Lot from Lippi

France national team head coach Zinedine Zidane said he believes his side will put in a competitive performance against Italy even with a squad without Mbappé. Zidane said Marcello Lippi taught him a great deal about tactics during his time at Juventus and expressed his wish to one day take charge of Juventus.

The match will kick off at San Siro on Thursday at 19:45 GMT (20:45 CET). In the Nations League, only the top two teams in each group can advance to the quarter-finals. In Group A1, France lead with 10 points, Italy are second with 7 points, and Belgium are third with 6 points. In the final round, Italy will face Belgium in Brussels, while France will host Türkiye, who sit at the bottom of the group.

It was announced that Mbappé will not even be on the bench for this match due to injury. Marcus Thuram, Esteban Lepaul, Ousmane Dembélé, Aurelien Tchouameni, Manu Koné and Pierre Kalulu have also left the squad recently. Zidane said he had not included Thuram and Tchouameni in the camp because they were not fit enough to play. Saying they hope Mbappé will be able to play on Sunday, Zidane said they are following a cautious policy to protect the players' health.

Zidane also said he is using Andy Diouf, who plays as a right-back for Inter, as a left-back for France. He added that Warren Zaire Emery will play in midfield.