William Saliba set for 1st World Cup start | OneFootball

William Saliba is set to make his first start of France’s World Cup campaign against Tunisia on Wednesday, according to a report from France.

L’Equipe (via GFFN) report that William Saliba is set to be one of the players coming into the France team for their final group stage match against Tunisia on Wednesday.

Didier Deschamps’ side go into the final match having already qualified for the knockout stages, simply looking to secure top spot in the group by avoiding a defeat.

Even a defeat could be enough to finish top, depending on the result in the other game, so this is a very low-stakes opportunity to give a few players their World Cup debuts.

L’Equipe claim Saliba looks set to partner Raphael Varane in the defence, though interestingly, it seems the Arsenal man is set to play at left centre-back.

Saliba normally plays at right centre-back for Arsenal, but he’s played on the left plenty of times for other clubs.

Along with Saliba, the likes of Eduardo Camavinga, Benjamin Pavard, Steve Mandanda, Youssouf Fofana, and Kingsley Coman are all expected to come into the team against Tunisia.

Though the match may be low stakes from a team perspective, this is an opportunity for Saliba to show he can be trusted at the tournament.

It’s not hard to argue that France still don’t have an obvious first-choice back four right now, given how much they’ve rotated from game to game.

A good performance here could get the Arsenal man into Deschamps’ thinking for the later fixtures.