Photo by Markus Gilliar – GES Sportfoto/Getty Images
The center-back made a rare start for Les Bleus to begin the tournament. The injury-stricken current World Cup title holders France began their defense of the cup with a strong start on Tuesday. Les Bleus beat Australia 4-1 despite missing key players such as Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kanté, and Paul Pogba.
Stepping up to the plate for manager Didier Deschamps were Olivier Giroud, who scored a brace, and Kylian Mbappé.
From a Liverpool perspective, defender Ibrahima Konaté earned a spot in the starting line up and played all 90 minutes. He even nearly got himself a goal late on in the match, but it was saved by the Australian goalkeeper.
Denmark and Tunisia are the two other teams in France’s group D, making it their group to lose. While the squad is not anywhere near full strength, even a struggling France has a front three of Ousmane Dembélé, Antoine Griezmann, and Mbappé, so they were favored to come out on top in this match.
Though Saudi Arabia’s shock victory over Argentina proves that victory is not guaranteed in this tournament.
Groups E and F kick off on Wednesday.