LEIPZIG, Germany (AP) — Kylian Mbappé was left out of France’s starting lineup for its European Championship clash with the Netherlands on Friday. He was among the substitutes.
Mbappé hadn’t been certain to start after breaking his nose on Monday in the opening 1-0 win over Austria.
Mbappé trained wearing a face mask on Thursday and coach Didier Deschamps sounded optimistic that his star forward would be able to play. But Deschamps evidently decided it was not worth the risk to start him against the physical Dutch defenders.
Deschamps opted to go with Antoine Griezmann, Marcus Thuram and the unpredictable Ousmane Dembélé up front. Griezmann played further back against Austria, but Real Madrid midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni has recovered from injury to start, and Griezmann can expect to play closer to the goal.
Mbappé appeared relaxed when he got off the team bus upon arrival at the stadium. He wore sunglasses but no bandage on his nose as he had when he resumed light training on Wednesday.
He emerged before Friday’s game wearing a black face mask — not the red, white and blue mask he wore on Thursday — for the team’s warmup, and sat on a football initially while the rest of his teammates stretched out. He was coaxed off the ball by a coach, then spent some time adjusting the mask and tapping it, as if to test its suitability, before he joined the substitutes in kicking a ball around.
France and the Netherlands are level on three points in Group D. France has won seven of the teams’ last eight meetings.
Austria defeated Poland 3-1 in their second Group D game earlier Friday.
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AP Euro 2024: https://apnews.com/hub/euro-2024