France v Iraq team news: Three changes apiece, Doue benched

Jun 22, 2026 5 min read views
Dugout Discussion
22 June 2026 53 comments
Skonto Rigga Skonto Rigga
Share:

France will qualify for the Round of 32 of the World Cup this evening with a win over Iraq.

Kick-off at the Philadelphia Stadium – weather permitting – is at 22:00 BST.

TEAM NEWS

Despite Les Blues beating Senegal 3-1 last Tuesday, Didier Deschamps has made three changes to his side.

Bradley Barcola ($8.0m) is rewarded for his goalscoring cameo in Round 1 with a start, so Desire Doue ($7.5m) has to make way.

Lucas Digne ($5.0m) and Manu Kone ($6.1m) are also in for Aurelien Tchouameni ($6.5m) and Theo Hernandez ($5.0m).

Popular Fantasy picks Kylian Mbappe ($10.5m) and Michael Olise ($9.5m), owned by 55.1% and 35.8% of managers respectively, are part of the France attack as expected.

There are also three alterations for Iraq, who lost 4-1 to Norway in their opening group game.

There’s a change between the posts as Jalal Hassan ($3.9m) is ousted by Ahmed Basil ($3.8m).

Zidane Iqbal ($5.6m) and Ahmed Qasem ($4.4m) replace Ali Jasim ($4.9m) and Ali Al Hamadi ($4.7m) in the two other tweaks to Graham Arnold’s XI.

LINE-UPS

France XI: Maignan, Kounde, Upamecano, Saliba, Digne, Kone, Rabiot, Olise, Dembele, Barcola, Mbappe.

Subs: Samba, Gusto, Tchouameni, Thuram, Kante, Konate, Zaire-Emery, Doue, L. Hernandez, T. Hernandez, Mateta, Risser, Cherki, Akliouche, Lacroix.

Iraq XI: Basil, Doski, Hashim, Tahseen, H. Ali, Ismael, Al Ammari, Qasem, Iqbal, Bayesh, Hussein.

Subs: Talib, Sulaka, Younus, Amyn, Al Hamadi, M. Ali, Hassan, Yousif, Maknzi, Jasim, Yakob, Sher, Farji, Saadoon, Putros.