Mbappé is out of France’s trip to San Siro, and a win over Italy would still send them to the Nations League quarter-finals

Kylian Mbappé will miss France’s Nations League game against Italy at San Siro on Thursday night with a hamstring problem, and Zinedine Zidane is not taking any chances with him. “He will miss tomorrow, he felt a little pain and we won’t take any risk,” the France coach said on Wednesday. He called it “just a minor issue” and hopes Mbappé will be fit for Sunday.

France can still get to the quarter-finals without him. A win in Milan would put them through with a game to spare. Kick-off is 8:45pm local time, which is 1:15am IST on Friday.

How Group A1 stands

France top the group with ten points from four games: three wins and a draw. Italy are second on seven, a point ahead of Belgium, and Türkiye have lost all four. Belgium play Türkiye in İzmir earlier on Thursday evening, so Italy could kick off knowing they have been overtaken.

The final round is on Sunday. France host Türkiye in Bordeaux, and Italy travel to Brussels to face Belgium, which is why Thursday matters more to Italy than to France. A defeat at San Siro would leave Roberto Mancini’s side needing a result in Brussels.

Olise without Mbappé

Mbappé had only just come back. He scored the winner against Türkiye in Zidane’s first match in charge in September, a 1-0 win, then went off with pain in his left knee and missed France’s next three games. He has 17 goals for Real Madrid this season, and this was his first camp since.

France have still found goals without him. Michael Olise has four of their seven in the group, including the opener in the 1-1 draw with Italy in Paris on 2 October and two late ones in the 4-1 win over Belgium. He came off the bench for that Belgium game, and so did Désiré Doué and Rayan Cherki, who scored the other two after France had gone 1-0 down.

Mbappé is not the only absentee. The Juventus defender Pierre Kalulu is missing as well. “It’s a shame to lose players but it’s part of the game,” Zidane said.

Mancini’s young Italy

Mancini is in his second spell as Italy coach, and he has leaned on younger players this autumn. Pio Esposito, a centre-forward who is still only 21, has scored twice in the group. “I like that we are building a group of young players,” Mancini said this week.

He has had to reshuffle at the back. The Roma centre-back Gianluca Mancini pulled out injured, and the coach chose Juventus’s Federico Gatti to replace him over the 18-year-old Udinese defender Matteo Palma, whom he had first named as cover.

Alessandro Bastoni scored Italy’s equaliser in Paris, and he has two goals in the group from centre-back. Italy’s only defeat in the group came at home, 2-0 to Belgium in September.

Recent meetings favour France

Italy have the better all-time record, but France have won three of the last five meetings. The most recent one at San Siro, in the Nations League in November 2024, went 3-1 to France, with Adrien Rabiot scoring twice. That came two months after Italy had won 3-1 in Paris, and the game in Paris last month finished 1-1.

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