Lisbon (AFP)

Showered Wednesday by Finland, the Blues challenge Saturday (8:45 p.m.) in Lisbon the Portugal of Cristiano Ronaldo, holding the League of Nations that the teammates of Kylian Mbappé, uncertain, hope to dethrone seven months before a spicy reunion at the start of Euro.

Estádio da Luz, nicknamed the "cathedral" by Benfica supporters, will be as silent as the Stade de France, where the French team was crucified 2-0 by the modest 55th world nation on Wednesday in a friendly.

But the casting will be radically different and the stake, of a whole different dimension: the possible winner of this shock at the top of the group A3 will get his ticket for the final phase ("Final 4") of the new competition of the UEFA, whose first edition was won by the Portuguese in 2019.

The Blues "want to bounce back" after Wednesday's defeat "and" achieve a great performance "against the Seleçao," a very strong team, very self-confident ", summarized French captain Hugo Lloris.

The Portugal-France poster revives the memory of the Euro-2016 final, won 1-0 by the Seleçao in extra time, but it also gives a taste of the enticing duel scheduled between the two nations on June 23 next in Budapest in the first round of the Euro, postponed for a year.

- Mbappé, decision Saturday -

On Saturday, in a city under curfew, will this poster sparkle?

The lackluster round (0-0) in Saint-Denis last month calls for caution, especially as several executives of the France team could be missing.

The uncertainty relates to the state of form of Bayern Munich players Benjamin Pavard, Lucas Hernandez and Corentin Tolisso, as well as Parisians Presnel Kimpembe and Kylian Mbappé, opponents in the last Champions League final in August won by the Munich in this same stadium.

These five players, in addition to Adrien Rabiot, skipped Finland on Wednesday, treating muscle problems for most of them.

Friday night in Portugal, they all participated in the last collective training session, with the notable exception of Mbappé (thigh) who started it apart for a "specific job" according to Deschamps.

"As for other players, we will see later. I will wait for training and a point will be made tomorrow (Saturday) morning to see how they are, before making a decision," detailed the coach at the conference. hurry.

Not sure of being able to start the Parisian striker, Deschamps must also do without the other co-top scorer of the last French Championship, Wissam Ben Yedder, tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday and therefore forfeited.

- "Not here to suffer" -

In the opposite camp, Fernando Santos can count on his captain and five-time Golden Ball Cristiano Ronaldo, "physically good", his other nuggets of attack Joao Felix, Diogo Jota or even Bernardo Silva, but not on the veteran of the central defense Pepe (37 years old), injured in a foot.

First winners of the competition, the Portuguese will once again advance to the final phase (semi then final) of the League of Nations scheduled for October 2021 if they beat the Blues.

The French will steal the ticket from them in case of victory ... in addition to avoiding a second defeat in a row, an unprecedented poor performance for the Blues since 2015 (Belgium then Albania in friendly).

The last possible scenario, a draw would keep the suspense intact before the final game Tuesday of France against Sweden and Portugal in Croatia.

"I expect a similar game in the first leg (0-0 in October) with strong, very tactical teams. Will there be goals this time? I hope so, at least for us, "Deschamps smiled to reporters, asserting that the idea was not to" come here to suffer ".

His counterpart Santos was also ambitious.

"My goal is always to win," he said.

"We have to show dynamism, quality and creativity to score goals," said the Lusitanian technician on Friday, three days after the 7-0 friendly demonstration against Andorra.

© 2020 AFP