France will play tonight in Paris against Israel at Stade de France, as part of the UEFA‘s Nations League competition. The former EURO 2000 winners are currently second in the Group 2 with nine points, and all they need to do tonight in order to reach the quarter-finals next March is not to lose. In fact, they could even lose tonight and still qualify, but that would mean that Belgium didn‘t beat Italy in Brussels on the same night. And considering that the guests have all four defeats, this game surely won‘t be a problem for Didier Deschamp‘s men, with or without Kylian Mbappe. In his absence, N‘Golo Kante has been promoted as captain, but the squad selection and captaincy are not interesting anyone. Other event will overshadow the game.Unfortunately, all media eyes are turned to the announced pro-Palestine rally, which is to be held outside the stadium. So far, the police hasn‘t forbid the event, but they are holding by. A rally against the holding of the match is planned at the town hall of Saint-Denis, the host city of the stadium, less than three hours before the start of the game. The demonstration is called at the initiative of pro-Palestinian associations which denounce the armed intervention of Israel in Palestine and Lebanon. “We don’t play with genocide,” reads a poster posted on social media, for which a giant “Free Palestine“ banner from the PSG-Atletico game was used.Reasons for Mbappe’s absence revealed4000 police officers will be there, as well as some big political figures: French president Emmanuel Macron, prime Minister Michel Barnier, the two former Presidents of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012) and François Hollande (2012-2017) and the President of the Île-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse as well as the Israeli ambassador Joshua Zarka. He said that he has “complete confidence” in France to secure the Nations League match. After the ugly scenes of violence in Amsterdam last week in a match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau decided to mobilize more than 4,000 police officers and the expected crowds at this game will be very low – around 20.000 tops.”France still secured the Olympic Games. We had direct threats against our athletes, our supporters, ourselves, who came from groups on site and from Iran. And France managed to secure these Games in a perfect way. We know that France is capable of securing a match like tonight’s. We have no doubts. Hooliganism is different. In Holland, they were chasing Jews in the streets of Amsterdam. People had to say ‘I’m not Israeli, I’m not Jewish,’ and they still got beaten up“ said Zarka to RMS Sports.UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE – GROUP STAGEDivision AThursday 22.45: (2.50) Belgium (3.45) Italy (3.00)22.45: (1.13) France (9.00) Israel (17.0)Friday 22.45: (4.70) Denmark (3.50) Spain (1.80)22.45: (1.27) Portugal (5.90) Poland (10.5)22.45: (3.40) Scotland (3.40) Croatia (2.15)22.45: (1.85) Switzerland (3.60) Serbia (4.80)Saturday 22.45: (1.15) Germany (8.00) B&H (16.0)22.45: (1.40) Netherlands (4.70) Hungary (8.00)Sunday 22.45: (3.40) Italy (3.35) France (2.30)
