Lucas Digne can do no wrong for Aston Villa or France.
Steven Gerrard didn’t do much right at Aston Villa, but one thing he can be applauded for is signing Digne from Everton in January 2022.
Surprise, surprise, the left-back didn’t actually play his best Football under Gerrard, but Digne has gone to the next level under Unai Emery.
During the past 12 months, the 31-year-old has been one of the best fullbacks in the Premier League, but he hasn’t got the recognition or plaudits from outside the four walls of Aston Villa.
Those performances resulted in Digne earning a France recall this season after a two-year absence.
And it’s fair to say that he hasn’t let his country down because every time he is on that pitch, he is performing and even providing assist after assist.
That was proven during France’s impressive 3-1 win over Italy in the UEFA Nations League at the San Siro on Sunday evening.
Lucas Digne supplies two assists as France beat Italy
Digne was left out of France’s goalless draw last week, but he returned to the XI against the Italians and he was at it from the off in what was his 50th cap.
Within a few minutes, the Villa man was assisting Adrien Rabiot for the opening goal and that would become a common theme.
Then, in the 33rd minute, Digne netted a quite outrageous free-kick that was too hot to handle for Tottenham’s Guglielmo Vicario in between the sticks, but unfortunately, it went down as an own goal.
Even though Italy pegged the game back to 2-1 just before half-time, Digne and Rabiot were at it again, with Villa’s in-form star supplying another assist.
Villa have lost four games in a row, but one man who can hold his head up high during that period is Digne because, along with Youri Tielemans, Emi Martinez and Morgan Rogers, they are still performing.
That’s why Digne has a spring in his step, with Football Italia rating his performance a 9/10. The highest-rated French player.
They did note about the free-kick: ‘Then an own-goal after a sweetly-struck Lucas Digne free-kick hit him on the rebound. Though it was always destined for the net, the Italy ‘keeper was a little across his line’.
GetFootballNewsFrance were also impressed by what they saw from Digne and handed him a rating of 8/10. The joint highest, alongside Rabiot.
‘The Aston Villa man was involved in all three goals (making it four in total in his last two France outings), with two set-piece assists for Rabiot and a free-kick that was turned in by Vicario,’ wrote GFNF.
‘A performance – to mark his 50th cap – which looks to have settled his claim to the French starting berth at left-back.’
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