Turkey vs France prediction and predicted line-ups, Zidane's first game in charge against Montella's Turkey. Nations League, Friday 25 September

Zinedine Zidane's time as France head coach begins in İzmit on Friday 25 September, against Vincenzo Montella's Turkey. Zidane was appointed on 28 July, and Turkey are playing in League A for the first time. The build-up in France, though, has been about Kylian Mbappé, who missed training on Tuesday 22 September with a flu-like illness.

Turkey vs France: kick-off time and venue

Turkey vs France kicks off at 19:45 UK time (20:45 CEST, 21:45 in Turkey) on Friday 25 September at the Kocaeli Stadium in İzmit, about 110km east of Istanbul. It is Group A1 of League A in the Nations League, alongside Italy and Belgium, and the top two reach the quarter-finals in March 2027. Germany's Felix Zwayer is the referee, with Christian Dingert on VAR.

Team news

Mbappé was the only one of the 23 to miss Tuesday's session at Clairefontaine. The staff called it a “syndrome grippal” (flu-like illness), and the captain stayed in bed. By Wednesday morning no withdrawal had been announced and no timescale given. Zidane has already lost goalkeeper Robin Risser, replaced by Como's Jean Butez, and the injured Warren Zaïre-Emery, replaced by Maghnes Akliouche.

Turkey are without the injured Hakan Çalhanoğlu of Inter, Kenan Yıldız of Juventus, who has had surgery on his foot, and Mert Müldür. The open question is Orkun Kökçü of Beşiktaş, who has pain in his toe and sat out training on Monday and Tuesday. There was no official decision on Wednesday morning and he was still in the squad, but some of the Turkish press rate his chances of playing as low. France have seven Serie A players, among them AC Milan's Mike Maignan and Adrien Rabiot, Roma's Manu Koné and uncapped Como midfielder Lucas Da Cunha, of whom Zidane said on 18 September: “Da Cunha est intéressant et a de la personnalité” (Da Cunha is interesting and has personality).

Turkey vs France predicted line-ups

Zidane is changing the system. On Tuesday he worked with a 4-3-3, with Ousmane Dembélé through the middle as he plays for PSG and Michael Olise on the right; with Mbappé missing, Bradley Barcola was on the left. Two French previews, published on Tuesday and Wednesday, agree on the shape and on nine names: France (4-3-3): Maignan; Koundé, Upamecano, Jacquet or Konaté, Truffert; Koné, Rabiot, Cherki or Camavinga; Olise, Dembélé, Mbappé. If Mbappé is not fit, Désiré Doué or Barcola would play on the left. Zidane talked about his captain's position on 18 September: “Je ne sais pas si son meilleur poste est avant-centre mais moi, je l'aime aussi beaucoup à gauche” (I don't know if his best position is centre-forward, but I also like him a lot on the left).

There is no Turkey XI worth printing. The predictions published since Monday all use a 4-2-3-1 but differ in almost every area of the pitch, and by Wednesday Montella had given nothing away. The fixed points are Uğurcan Çakır in goal, Zeki Çelik at right-back, Arda Güler and Barış Alper Yılmaz. Bardakcı, Demiral and Kabak are competing for two centre-back places and Kadıoğlu and Elmalı for left-back; Özcan, İsmail Yüksek and the doubtful Kökçü are vying for the two midfield places, with Aktürkoğlu, Oğuz Aydın, Yunus Akgün and Can Uzun further forward. The official line-ups are released about an hour before kick-off.

Head-to-head and form

The two sides have met six times since 1996, and France have won four. Turkey's only win in that run came in Euro 2020 qualifying, 2-0 in Konya on 8 June 2019 with goals from Kaan Ayhan and Cengiz Ünder; the return game at Saint-Denis on 14 October ended 1-1. Montella and Zidane played against each other in Serie A, for Roma and Juventus, but have never met as coaches.

Turkey reached their first World Cup in 24 years through the March play-offs, beating Romania 1-0 and Kosovo 1-0 away, then went out in the group stage with two defeats and a win. France knocked out Sweden, Paraguay and Morocco before losing 2-0 to Spain in the semi-final and 6-4 to England in the third-place play-off, Didier Deschamps's last game. Mbappé scored twice that day to overtake Lionel Messi as the World Cup's all-time top scorer with 22 goals.

Our Turkey vs France prediction

Our call is no more than four goals, confidence 6 out of 10. The last three meetings, going back to 2009, finished 1-0, 2-0 and 1-1, and four of France's five World Cup knockout games ended with three goals or fewer, the 6-4 against England being the exception. The rest of the round is in our matchday one preview, and the full squads are in our squad round-up.

Every game with our calls is on the Nations League page. The record of settled calls is in the results history, and our calls on individual players are in player predictions.