Kylian Mbappé injured, Zinedine Zidane sees his first trio compromised
During the Turkey‑France match, Kylian Mbappé left the field injured, condemning the captain to miss the end of the French national team’s international window, while Zinedine Zidane will not be able to recreate his planned attacking trio for this gathering.
Match and Mbappé’s performance
The young striker was the author of an average but decisive encounter before leaving injured in Turkey. He recorded only two shots, of which only one was on target, and just three touches inside the opponent’s box out of thirty‑four balls touched in total.
His lack of activity is partly explained by the quality of the pitch and a very compact Turkish low block, which prevented him from dribbling and led him to overlook Adrien Truffert on the left wing, thus limiting his options inside the game.
Despite these difficulties, Mbappé managed to score the decisive goal, taking advantage of coordinated pressing and a collective turnover, his shot being supplied by Michael Olise, his favourite passer at the moment.
Zidane picks Mbappé on the left wing for his debut with France
Impacts and prospects for France
His injury deprives him of the next three matches for France, as well as the Clasico against Real scheduled in a month, leaving the French attack without its regular scorer.
Since his debut under the blue shirt in 2017, he has missed only twenty‑one matches, a period during which France have won thirteen times, drawn six times and lost twice; these statistics will evolve against Belgium and Italy.
Positioned on the left wing, he was to rediscover this role alongside Ousmane Dembélé up front, Michael Olise on the right and Mohamed Cherki in support, a quartet that Zidane was counting on for the first long minutes of his tenure.
Mbappé scores and stops: Real and France anxious about his knee
“A being is missing and everything feels empty,” said a commentator, noting that the atmosphere of the evening recalled the matches of the Didier Deschamps era, while in 2026 Zinedine Zidane takes over, echoing the verses of Alphonse de Lamartine written in 1820 within the framework of the League of Nations.