How Portugal and France could line-up in the Nations League

11:15am on Friday 13th November 2020
By Martin Macdonald

The most high-profile match in this round of Nations League matches sees Portugal take on France at the Estadio da Luz.

The last time Cristiano Ronaldo was on international duty with Portugal he tested positive for coronavirus before missing a number of games for Juventus.

He started the friendly match against Andorra on the bench but will be fit and firing to feature in the starting XI against versus the reigning world champions.

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A much-changed Portugal side won 7-0 a few days ago, with Paulinho scoring two up top, but he will likely be the man to make way for CR7 who should feature in the centre-forward position.

It is probably that the majority of the stars who featured against Andorra will be replaced, with Rui Patricio, Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo, Raphael Guerreiro, William Carvalho, Danilo, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, and Joao Felix all coming in.

There are no fresh injury concerns for Fernando Santos after the friendly win.

On-fire Bayern winger Kingsley Coman suffered an ankle injury in training with Les Bleus this week, and although it is not believed to be serious, he might not be risked by Didier Deschamps.

France surprisingly lost to Finland in a friendly during the week, but like Portugal, they will likely make a raft of changes to the starting XI for the Nations League.

The likes of Hugo Lloris, Raphael Varane, Lucas Hernandez, N'Golo Kante, and Antoine Griezmann are all certain to be recalled.

Kylian Mbappe missed that game against Finland and is currently battling a hamstring injury. Rather than risk the wrath of PSG and play him when not fully fit, he may be left on the bench from the start against Portugal.