Euro 2024 qualifiers: before Didier Deschamps' list, who will return to Les Bleus?

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: FRANCK FIFE / AFP 18:00 pm, May 30, 2023

A small opening before the holidays? Didier Deschamps discloses Wednesday at 14 pm his list for the qualifying matches for Euro 2024 against Gibraltar and Greece, on June 16 and 19, which should especially be an opportunity to see strikers Ousmane Dembélé and Christopher Nkunku. For these two meetings a priori largely within the reach of the vice-champions of the world, the coach of the Blues will above all have the ambition to avoid the unpleasant surprises that have too often marked these end-of-season meetings, like the calamitous record of last June (2 losses, 2 draws).

The period is therefore not necessarily conducive to novelties for the French technician, anxious to surf on the beautiful dynamic of March (victories against the Netherlands 4-0 and Ireland 1-0) and to take a step closer to the European Championship in Germany.

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Return of Dembélé?

With the probable recalls of Ousmane Dembélé, absent through injury three months ago, and the co-top scorer of the Bundesliga Christopher Nkunku, forfeit just before the 2022 World Cup and also on the flank in March, Deschamps will instead have to make room in the offensive sector where traffic jams lurk.

Moussa Diaby and Marcus Thuram, affected by the adductors, could pay the price unless "DD" takes the opportunity to hasten a generational renewal by removing the veteran Olivier Giroud (36 years old). But it would be very surprising if it is so brutally without the best scorer in the history of the Blues (53 goals), who has proclaimed his desire to continue his international adventure until the Euro and has also sent AC Milan in the Champions League on a magnificent whim, Sunday against Juventus Turin (1-0).

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A breach in the middle?

It will also be necessary to watch the fate reserved for Alexandre Lacazette, second gunner of Ligue 1 (27) behind captain Kylian Mbappé, even if a call-up of the 32-year-old Lyonnais, whose last of the 16 selections dates back to November 14, 2017 and who has never really shone in the France team, would be surprising since it would overshadow the new blue wave. However, a small gap could be offered in the interplay with the injury of Khéphren Thuram, victim of a muscle injury in the right thigh. The Marseillais Valentin Rongier, never retained but present in the team-type of Ligue 1 at the UNFP Trophies Sunday, could rush in.

One thing is certain: we will still have to wait to see the two 2018 world champions Paul Pogba and Ngolo Kanté. The Juve player still does not see the end of the tunnel and injured his left thigh on May 14 with the "Old Lady" in his first start of the season. The Chelsea midfielder felt pain in an adductor in training in mid-May.

In defence, around the new hinge Ibrahima Konaté-Dayot Upamecano and the usual full-backs Benjamin Pavard, Theo Hernandez, Jules Koundé and Eduardo Camavinga, there will be one or two places to take with the end of the season of William Saliba, Presnel Kimpembe and Lucas Hernandez, coupled with the current bad pass of Wesley Fofana, in great difficulty with Chelsea in recent weeks. We could therefore see again the Monegasque Axel Disasi, called at the last minute for the World Cup in Qatar and for the gathering in March.