Manchester City defender Bacary Sagna has said that Karim Benzema is France’s “best” striker after squaring off against the Real Madrid forward in the first leg of City’s Champions League semifinal against Los Blancos earlier this week.
Benzema was substituted at half time against City after a suspected hamstring injury and was replaced by Jese, but Sagna said he had seen enough in the first half to feel that Les Bleus would be a poorer side without the Real Madrid star
He impressed me, he managed to keep the ball and made a few chances. This is an interesting player and for me, Karim is the best French striker
Bacary Sagna after the game, in his interview to RMC
Benzema will not take part in this summer’s European Championships after being named as part of a plot to extort money from national teammate Mathieu Valbuena. He has been charged with conspiracy to blackmail and the French Football Federation has made the decision to suspend him indefinitely until he is exonerated.
France, who take on Romania, Albania and Switzerland in the group stage of Euro 2016, will undoubtedly miss the talents of Benzema, with the player himself said to be devastated at missing out on the tournament. The onus will now fall on the likes Antoine Griezmann, Olivier Giroud and Anthony Martial to fill the void left by Benzema. With the Real star previously being one of the favourites for the golden boot award this summer, Atletico Madrid’s in-form striker Griezmann will now burden much of the expectation, and is being quoted at 9/1 to claim the award behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Thomas Muller.
Despite the loss of Benzema, France remain one of the favourites for glory this summer. The host’s last major success came back at Euro 2000, and they will certainly be looking for a repeat performance this time around. With a squad containing quality throughout, a bet on them qualifying from their group seems almost a certainty. In fact, Didier Deschamps men are 11/4 favourites to go the whole way and win the tournament.
How much will Benzema’s absence affect France?
Benzema is certainly one very talented footballer, but hasn’t quite been able to translate his Real Madrid form onto the national stage. He’s scored 27 goals in 81 appearances for Les Bleus and has represented them in three major international tournaments, but has scored only in one.
Olivier Giroud has been in very poor form for Arsenal, and has not scored in 19 of his last 20 games for the Gunners. It could be that Giroud is conserving his energy for the Euros, with his spot all but guaranteed after Benzema’s expulsion, but Deschamps has other options if he doesn’t want to include the Arsenal hitman- one, for example, would to be play Griezmann along with the attacking talents of Martial and Payet. In a way, the absence of Liverpool’s Mamadou Sakho, who has been provisionally given a 30 day ban, might affect Les Bleus more than Benzema not playing.
France are not certainly lacking talent, as mentioned above and in Benzema’s absence, some of their other players might step up and produce in crunch moments for Les Bleus instead of relying on Benzema to come up with the goods all the time.