Barcelona star drops to bench on the international stage | OneFootball

A leading member of the defensive ranks at La Liga giants Barcelona has dropped out of his country’s latest starting XI.

The player in question? Jules Koundé.

Stopper Koundé, for his part, is fresh off a stellar opening to the campaign, playing all 360 minutes of Barcelona’s fixtures en route to a spot atop the La Liga table.

Having also played a starring role for France at the European Championships, the widespread expectation was that the former Sevilla man would in turn be in from the off once more on Friday night.

This comes as France prepare to lock horns with Italy, in a Nations League clash.

This, however, has in fact not proven to be the case.

Instead, Koundé has been forced to make do with a place on the bench, losing out on a starting berth in Didier Deschamps’ side to Jonathan Clauss.

Check out France’s line-up to face Italy in full below:

Conor Laird | GSFN