France vs. Serbia, International Friendly: Team News, Preview, Stream, TV Info
The international break has already brought some intriguing performances and results this time around, with France's recent friendly against Portugal just one of them.
Didier Deschamps' side continue their preparations for hosting Euro 2016 with a fixture, another friendly, against Serbia on Monday night. Serbia themselves were in competitive action before on Friday, seeing off Armenia by a 2-0 scoreline as they chase qualification for the finals.
The countdown to Euro 2016 is on, and the number of games left for France to tweak their tactics is dwindling, so Deschamps and his side will be keen to ensure they get the maximum out of the match.
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Date: Monday, September 7
Time: 7:45 p.m. BST (2:45 p.m. ET)
Venue: Stade Bordeaux-Atlantique, Bordeaux
TV Info: TF1 (France), ESPN Deportes+ (U.S.)
Live Stream: WATCH ESPN (U.S.)
The Teams
France, as hosts, have no qualification worries—but playing only non-competitive action brings its own problems, of course, namely keeping the players focused and convinced the friendly games are a worthwhile exercise.
Deschamps attempted to revitalise his side after recent defeats to Belgium and Albania by switching around his system once more and employing different players for different roles: They went with a 4-4-2 diamond against Portugal, asking Paul Pogba to display his power and offensive talents from the No. 10 role.
"Interesting to see Pogba in this advanced position behind the forwards. Deschamps said that he is not a playmaker. Expect a free role then
— Julien Laurens (@LaurensJulien) September 4, 2015"
France largely dominated the game, though it took a late free-kick from Mathieu Valbuena to eventually give them the win they deserved. Deschamps was happy with the performance, even though the win came late, per the MailOnline:
"We showed a lot of aggression, we had some good moves, and we did not concede a goal. Beyond the result against a good Portugal team, we had the ingredients we needed. We had the better chances and could have scored before we did. We had a stranglehold on the second half. I saw beautiful things.
"
"Great strike by Valbuena... #football #france #portugal https://t.co/8eb6AnkRuy
— Photos of Football (@photosofootball) September 4, 2015"
The choice to go with two centre-forwards alongside each other was a bit of a departure from Deschamps' usual arrangement, though the movement of Nabil Fekir in the early stages toward the right channel certainly made for fluidity rather than structure being key.
Deschamps now targets consistency in performances as well as results and hopes for better going forward, per FourFourTwo.
"To attack, we must defend well and find the right balance. You cannot have everything, but we showed we are capable against Portugal and we have to do the same in every game now. We saw some really good things from Paul Pogba. He was wasteful sometimes but he played right on the axis of the triangle and linked well with Yohan [Cabaye] and Blaise Matuidi. We created four clear chances, and Pogba was the creator.
"
As for Serbia, they can forget about competing at the Euros.
The 2-0 win over Armenia meant only one thing: the side now has a positive points tally, having been stuck on minus-two before the match—a points deduction incurred for disruption and violence in the Serbia-Albania match last October effectively ended Serbia's charge for qualification before it really got up and running.
A draw against Armenia, a defeat at home to Denmark and a poor losing display against Portugal only made things harder along the way. In the smallest qualification group, Serbia have two more qualifiers left to play and simply have to make sure they finish in fourth to not drop any lower down the world rankings ahead of the next tournament draw.
After the win over Armenia, coach Radovan Curcic spoke about how the team managed to overcome a difficult start, per UEFA.com:
"We had some problems in the midfield from their deep passing and player rotation. In managing to adapt in the second half we neutralised that threat. Armenia is a team which possesses quality. We wanted to win and get the three points. We had three new players who played well and we will use this to our advantage and continue working on our quality of play.
"
This is perhaps a side in rebuild mode, and the friendly fixture against France may well reflect that in terms of personnel. Curcic hasn't been in charge for even a year—Dick Advocaat began the campaign as Serbia manager.
Team News
The biggest news is that Fekir, having started France's game against Portugal, will miss a large part of the season. He was withdrawn just 15 minutes into the match having suffered a ruptured knee ligaments. Antoine Griezmann took his place to partner Karim Benzema in the attack, a two-man system that could use a little more time on the field to see if it has as much potential there as it looks to have on paper.
Manager Deschamps was disappointed to lose Fekir and the chance to see him in tandem with Benzema, but the double-edged attack is clearly something that intrigues him. Per FourFourTwo:
"This is a great sadness for Nabil, his club and for us. It takes time to come back. Unfortunately we could not see Nabil [Fekir] and Karim [Benzema] a long time together. Antoine Griezmann had not had long to warm up, but we saw some interesting things when he came on, but we can do better.
"
Serbia have no new withdrawals after their win over Armenia and could field a strong side, though the current squad features a few new faces such as home-based trio Darko Brasanac, Marko Petkovic and the talented young Andrija Zivkovic.
With more experienced forwards Filip Djordjevic and Danko Lazovic left out of the squad, the new attack must be consistently built around getting the best out of the powerful, but fiery, 20-year-old striker Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Goals from a regular source are an issue at present for Serbia, with Mitrovic only having scored once at senior level so far. In fact, from the current squad, only captain and defender Branislav Ivanovic and midfielder Zoran Tosic have managed more than six international goals—both have 10.
Possible Starting Lineups
France (4-4-2 diamond): Hugo Lloris; Bacary Sagna, Raphael Varane, Laurent Koscielny, Patrice Evra; Morgan Schneidlerin, Paul Pogba, Blaise Matuidi, Mathieu Valbuena; Antoine Griezmann, Karim Benzema.
Serbia (4-2-3-1): Vladimir Stojkovic; Nenad Tomovic, Branislav Ivanovic, Uros Spajic, Aleksandar Kolarov; Nemanja Matic, Darko Brasanac; Andrija Zivkovic, Adem Ljajic, Filip Kostic; Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Players to Watch
France: Blaise Matuidi
Whether for his defensive recoveries and ability to press the ball or for being used as an outlet with his capacity to cover large ground quickly and bombard the left channel of the pitch, Blaise Matuidi is a tactical cornerstone of Deschamps' France team.
Quick to cover for out of position team-mates, utterly indefatigable and with a far better technical prowess than he sometimes gets credit for, Matuidi is one of the players Deschamps cannot afford to be without.
He allows the team to play at a good tempo, retain shape and can break lines of opposing defences with his powerful runs from deep.
Serbia: Aleksandar Mitrovic
If Serbia's national team is to have a rebirth in the coming years, it needs someone to lead the line with regularity, responsibility and reliability in terms of hitting the back of the net. Mitrovic obviously has all the tools, but he needs to put in telling displays more regularly.
It's not just about occupying defences for him but also bringing others into play and creating room for himself inside the area to get shots away on goal.
Most importantly of all, he needs to up his goal tally quickly—one in 14 games for Serbia so far just isn't good enough. He needs to do better, and Serbia need to be far better in providing him with service and support in areas that make a difference.
Prediction: France 2-0 Serbia
