This is a serious alert for the France team. Twelve days before their entry into the 2026 World Cup, on June 16 against Senegal, the Blues lost Thursday evening against Ivory Coast (1-2) during their first friendly preparation match. If the absence of several executives and the turnover made by Didier Deschamps in the second half can explain this defeat, certain shortcomings observed are cause for concern.
When debriefing the meeting on TF1, Bixente Lizarazu thus pinpointed two players, at fault on the two Elephants goals, signed Guéla Doué (53e) and Amad Diallo (84e). On the first, Ibrahima Konaté, whom the consultant found “feverish”missed his intervention on Nicolas Pépé’s decisive pass. On the second, it is Malo Gusto, entered in place of Jules Koudé (66e), who is ” late “ in the eyes of the 1998 world champion.
Ibrahima Konaté “in danger” after France-Côte d’Ivoire
However, “Liza” believes that the French central defense is of quality. “Konaté, Upamecano and Saliba, this is the trio we can count onhe analyzed.
For Konaté, his season is a little more difficult with Liverpool but I think we have three very good central defenders. I am not going to draw definitive lessons from a single match even if there, yes, we could have done better defensively in our positioning and our alignment. »
The Reds player, announced at Real Madrid, is also singled out by the newspaper The Teamwho gave it a score of 4/10. “Always positioned on the left of central defense this season at Liverpool, ‘Ibou’ plays on the right in the France team. With enormous difficulties in placement, particularly on the Ivorian equalizerwrites the daily. If (William) Saliba returns to form in time, his teammate’s place is in danger. »
