Donnarumma: France can still hurt Italy without Mbappe

Gianluigi Donnarumma says Kylian Mbappe’s absence will not make Italy underestimate France ahead of their top-of-the-table Nations League clash.

Both teams have already qualified for the quarter-finals, but top spot in Group A2 is still up for grabs.

Italy currently sit top of the pile, three points ahead of France, who they beat 3-1 in early September, but a win for Les Bleus could see them drop to second.

However, for the second international break in a row, France are without their captain, Mbappe, with Didier Deschamps insisting he made the decision to leave the Real Madrid forward out of the squad.

France are unbeaten in their last three games without Mbappe, winning two and drawing one, and though they struggled in front of goal against Israel in a 0-0 stalemate last time out, Donnarumma believes they will still pose a threat to the Azzurri.

“Yes, I don’t know about the choices that are made in other squads. I don’t know what happened, it’s [Mbappe] certainly an important absence,” Donnarumma told a press conference.

“I know Kylian, he is one of the strongest in the world and if he was here, he could have troubled us a lot, but there will be other players.

“I know all of them well, they have great quality, strong strikers like [Bradley] Barcola, [Randal] Kolo Muani and [Warren] Zaire-Emery, who play with me. Barcola is an incredible talent, so they have very strong substitutes who can bother us.”

Straight back to it #Azzurri #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/QsLHZEnbIw

— Italy (@Azzurri_En) November 15, 2024

Italy are unbeaten in the Nations League, only dropping points in a 2-2 draw with Belgium in October after going down to 10 men.

It comes on the back of a disappointing Euro 2024 campaign in which they were knocked out in the round of 16 by Switzerland, winning just one game in their title defence.

However, Donnarumma believes Italy have found their rhythm again and have more in common with the Euro 2020 winning team.

“It’s a healthy group, I’m starting to see the spirit of the old European Championship,” he added. “They’re all young guys who want to show what they can do, who want to wear this jersey.

“The difficult part is to continue these performances. Our goal now is to continue to improve, work and enjoy ourselves and entertain the fans.”