Paraguay/France – Probable line-ups for the last-16 tie | OneFootball

This Saturday, the France national team will play in the Round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup against Paraguay at 11 p.m. at Philadelphia Stadium. On the eve of the match, Le Parisien and L’Equipe tried to predict the lineups that will be fielded by France coach Didier Deschamps and his Paraguayan counterpart Gustavo Alfaro. A match involving 5 Paris Saint-Germain players, all French: Lucas Hernandez, Warren Zaïre-Emery, Désiré Doué, Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembélé. 2 are expected to start.

Paraguay (4-4-2) –

Avalos – Enciso

Galarza – Cubas – Gomez – Almiron

Alonso – Canale – Gomez – Caceres

Gil

France (4-2-3-1) –

Mbappé

Barcola – Olise -Dembélé

Rabiot – Koné

Digne – Saliba – Upamecano – Koundé

Maignan.

Those lineups are entirely plausible given the players available and the recent matches, although Paraguay could line up in a 4-1-4-1 rather than a 4-4-2. Paraguay should take a defensive approach, as they did against Germany. That is one of their strengths, and France have an attacking unit capable of causing real problems. On that side, the biggest doubt remains between Bradley Barcola and Désiré Doué on the left.

But surprises remain possible, even if the media are often reliable when it comes to Deschamps’ choices. He still has plenty of options in his squad, which leaves the door open for some notable decisions.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.