The French national team secured passage to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Nations League finals with a 3-1 win in Milan over Italy, which allowed the French side to leapfrog the Italians by matching the Italians’ 3-1 victory in Paris in September.
Didier Deschamps’ side ultimately needed the third goal to match the Italians and give Les Bleus a better goal difference as well as an even head-to-head record. It came courtesy of Adrien Rabiot’s second goal of the night, alongside a Guglielmo Vicario own goal.
France achieved top spot without Eduardo Camavinga, who travelled with his French team-mates to Milan but watched on from the sidelines at the San Siro as AS Roma’s Manu Kané came into the side to replace Camavinga after he saw his second yellow of the Nations League campaign against Israel on Thursday.
That came following a previous yellow card, also against Israel during the October international break, and meant that he was ruled out and made unavailable for this match. He will, however, be back available for Deschamps for the quarter-final during the next international break in March 2025.
The draw for that play-off round will take place on Friday, November 22nd, and will pit France up against one of the other A League sides to qualify, with Spain, Germany and Italy being the three other sides to have secured a spot. Croatia, Poland and Scotland could all still qualify in Group 1, The Netherlands or Hungary could make it from Group 3, and Denmark or Serbia will pass through from Group 4.
Deschamps will then need to decide whether to call upon Ferland Mendy and Kylian Mbappé after both were left out by the coach for this international window, while Aurélien Tchouameni will have returned from the injury which ruled him out of these two fixtures and could come back into contention.
Belgium
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