Key events
20 min Olise teases Calafiori on the right, hinting that he might on the outside. It’s all a ruse: he cuts inside and whacks a long-range curling shot off target.
19 min Olise meanders infield from the right, hugging the ball on his Harvard-educated left foot, then tries to flip a cross towards Rabiot and Doue at the far post. It’s overhit – Harvard education my derriere – and Italy have a goalkick.
17 min Mancini will be pleased with how Italy have started. They haven’t had much of the ball but Gigi Donnarumma’s gloves remain unsullied and the only big chance fell to Italy. Slightly risible cliche though it is, world football needs a strong Italy.
14 min Roberto Mancini is back as Italy manager, of course, but this time he’s without his terrible twin Gianluca Vialli. If you haven’t seen it, I’d urge you watch the documentary about Sampdoria’s fairytale scudetto in 1990-91. Spoiler: there will be some rain on your face when Mancini and Vialli discuss their friendship.
12 min France have picked up where they left off before that chance. But they know now, if they didn’t before, that Italy can hurt them.
9 min: Great chance for Italy!
Frattesi smashes a crossfield pass out to Sebastiano Esposito on the right wing. He pushes the ball infield to Kayode, whose first-time cross reaches Keane six yards out at the far post. He bobbles a left-foot shot too close to Maignan, who scrambles desperately across his goalline to keep it out.
That was the first time Italy have got through the France press, and it should have led to a goal.
7 min See 3 min.
5 min A loose ball across the Italy defence is stolen by Olise on the right. He escapes Calafiori but then slips and the ball runs out of play.
3 min A strong start from France, who have barely permitted Italy a kick.
1 min Peep peep! France kick off from left to right as we watch.
The captains Ousmane Dembele and Gianluigi Donnarumma, teammates in Paris for three seasons, shake hands on the halfway line. Almost time for the action.
There’s a spectacular welcome for Zinedine Zidane, who is managing France at home for the first time. He’s dressed all in black, like a more inscrutable Martin Blank. As a great commentator once said, not a flicker.
“Curious as to how he comes across in front of a microphone, I had a look and a listen to Zinedine Zidane’s press conference ahead of the game (now up in various places, eg here),” begins Charles Antaki. “What a presence the man has, even though he seems to barely speak above a shy whisper: he hardly moves his head or body, and when he looks at the questioner it’s in part menacing and indulgent – but he dominates. Now and then he’ll give a little chuckle. The commander of a particularly tough Foreign Legion outpost deciding on the fate of a raw but promising recruit. Maybe it’s this that brings out the best in the Olises and Dembélés of the squad; in any case, results suggest that it’s working.”
Beautifully put. Imagine how tall you would feel after receiving a “well done” from Zidane.
“Is Marco Materazzi in the house?” asks Peter Oh. “Given the primacy of gestures in today’s world, a symbolic handshake to bury the headbutt, I mean hatchet would be appropriate.”
Have you checked hell’s temperature recently?
Jonathan Wilson
Even in his playing days, Zinedine Zidane seemed unknowable. As a manager, the sense of distance has only grown. He won three Champions Leagues with Real Madrid without ever giving a sense of what his idea of football looked like.
Zidane is one of five coaches to have won the Champions League on three or more occasions, ranking alongside Bob Paisley, Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique and behind only Carlo Ancelotti. He is the only manager to win three successive Champions Leagues and yet few would consider him one of the game’s elite coaches. In that spell he won one La Liga title.
Team news
Michael Olise, who came off the bench to score the winner against Belgium on Monday, starts in attack for France. That’s one of six changes made by Zinedine Zidane. Ousmane Dembele, Rayan Cherki, Adrien Truffert, Dayot Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot all come into the side, Dembele as captain in the absence of the injured Kylian Mbappe.
Roberto Mancini makes two changes to the Italy side that won 4-1 in Turkey. Riccardo Calafiori and Moise Kean come in for Matteo Ruggeri and the injured Giacomo Raspadori.
France (4-3-3) Maignan; Kalulu, Jacquet, Upamecano, Truffert; Cherki, Da Cunha, Rabiot; Olise, Dembele, Doue.
Subs: Restes, Butez, Kounde, Camavinga, Kone, Barcola, Diouf, Yoro, Lacroix, Akliouche, Lepaul.
Italy (4-3-3) Donnarumma; Kayode, Scalvini, Bastoni, Calafiori; Frattesi, Tonali, Fagioli; Kean, P Esposito, S Esposito.
Subs: Carnesecchi, Vicario, Ruggeri, Ricci, Scamacca, Zoma, Doumbia, Maldini, Barella, Vergara, Di Lorenzo, Mancini.
Referee Jesus Gil Manzano (Spain).
Preamble
G’day and welcome to live, minute-by-minute coverage of the Nations League match between France and Italy at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.
France’s new coach Zinedine Zidane has made a fine start: two away games. two 1-0 wins against Belgium and Turkey. This is his first home game as France manager, and his first meeting with Italy since 9 July 2006. Don’t play silly buggers; you know exactly what happened that night.
Italy’s Nations League campaign got off to a bad start with a 2-0 defeat at home to Belgium, but they romped to a 4-1 win in Turkey on Tuesday. Roberto Mancini, who is beginning his second spell in charge, has also been in the news for other reasons.
We’re only a third of the way through Nations League Group A1, but right now it feels like a shootout between Belgium and Italy for the second quarter-final place. Points taken off France, if there are any, could make all the difference.
Kick off 7.45pm BST.
The story so far
Matchday one
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Italy 0-2 Belgium
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Turkey 0-1 France
Matchday two
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Belgium 0-1 France
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Turkey 1-4 Italy
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2026/oct/02/france-v-italy-nations-league-football-live-score-updates
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