A sextet of Premier League players will be donning the shirt of Les Bleus next week as France brings its squad together one last time before the 2018 World Cup.
Manchester United pair Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial, Chelsea pair N’Golo Kante and Olivier Giroud, Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny and Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris were all named to Didier Deschamps 24-man squad for a pair of friendly matches this month. France hosts Colombia on March 23 in Saint-Denis before traveling to Saint Petersburg to face Russia on March 27.
Voici la 1ère liste de l'année !
— Equipe de France ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) March 15, 2018
RDV lundi à Clairefontaine pour préparer les matchs contre la Colombie et la Russie !👊 #FiersdetreBleus
Il reste 1000 places pour France🆚Russie (23/03 au Stade de France)🇫🇷
➡ https://t.co/nOyXeahHgN pic.twitter.com/WMuxl4XRb7
Sevilla’s Wissam Ben Yedder and Atletico Madrid’s Lucas Hernandez earned their first senior France callups, but notably new Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte was left off the list.
Other notable absences are Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette, Man City’s Benjamin Mendy and Chelsea’s Tiémoué Bakayoko, each of whom are out injured. These friendlies are the last before the end of the season, when Deschamps will have to call in his preliminary squad, and players will fight it out for the final 23 places on the plane to Russia.
