Football
Julien Laurens, Correspondent 6y

France eyeing Nabil Fekir, Corentin Tolisso to replace Blaise Matuidi vs. Uruguay - sources

Didier Deschamps is yet to make his mind up between Corentin Tolisso and Nabil Fekir to replace the suspended Blaise Matuidi in France's World Cup quarterfinal against Uruguay on Friday, sources tell ESPN FC.

Thomas Lemar is the other contender to stand in for the Juventus midfielder, but sources say that Fekir was Deschamps' first choice 24 hours ago, with the France head coach likely already telling some of his key players about his decision.

However, on Thursday night, it seems that Tolisso, a more defensive player, came back in the running to start in Deschamps' mind.

Fekir has come on as a substitute in all four of Les Bleus' matches in the competition, playing 20 minutes against Australia, 10 minutes against Peru, 22 minutes against Denmark and seven against Argentina.

Tolisso has been given just 15 minutes since starting France's opening match against Australia. The Bayern Munich man replaced Matuidi in the 4-3 round-of-16 victory over Argentina, which led many to think he would be the natural choice to replace the former Paris Saint-Germain star against the South Americans.


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Like Matuidi, Tolisso is a box-to-box midfielder who's good on the ball and is intelligent with his movement. He is also good in the air and would be very precious on set pieces, one of Uruguay's strengths.

On the other hand, Deschamps knows Uruguay will play very deep and will not leave France much space. Fekir is very good in small areas and the quality of his left foot -- as well as his vision and quality of passing -- would be an asset against Diego Godin and the Celeste defence.

Lemar, for his part, is said to be out of the running completely.

Deschamps has plenty of time to make his mind up, and he didn't give anything away during France's final training session behind closed doors on Thursday.

Regarding the remaining 10 players who will start on Friday, they will be exactly the same as against Argentina and the 4-4-2 formation will be the same as well.

On Thursday evening, Deschamps still had not told his squad who the 11th man would be.

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