Nasri has pulled out the squad injured (Malouda, Remy, and Cabaye are also injury doubts), but we all know that Lyon have an attacking midfielder who can do the job just as well, or better, on his day: our very own Christian Gourcuff. But Gourcuff is left to watch from home as his club teammate Maxime Gonalons has been called up.

Take a look for yourselves, courtesy of the mugshots on FFF.fr. And that's without Gourcuff.

I'll update later, but here's the squad to face the USA and Belgium:

Goalkeepers
Cedric Carrasso (Girondins Bordeaux)
Hugo Lloris (Olympique Lyon)
Steve Mandanda (Olympique Marseille)

Defenders
Eric Abidal (Barcelona)
Matthieu Debuchy (Lille)
Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal)
Adil Rami (Valencia)
Anthony Reveillere (Lyon)
Jeremy Mathieu (Valencia)
Mamadou Sakho (Paris St Germain)

Midfielders
Yohan Cabaye (Newcastle United)
Alou Diarra (Marseille)
Yann M'Vila (Stade Rennes)
Marvin Martin (Sochaux)

Attacking Midfielders
Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich)
Jeremy Menez (PSG)
Samir Nasri (Manchester City)
Florent Malouda (Chelsea)

Forwards
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
Kevin Gameiro (PSG)
Olivier Giroud (Montpellier)
Loic Remy (Marseille)

I am far from the best person to write a scouting report on Olympique de Marseille, but no one else is volunteering. (Add comments if you have any thoughts.)

Match: Champions League Group Phase Away to the Arsenal

Result: 0-0

Standings after this 4th match
1.

Euro Qualifier on Friday.

Fifa.com has a post about Cisse and Gomis being called up as replacements to injured players who include:

Benzema;
Ribery; and
Sagna.

That's 3 starters, plus Abidal reportedly has "fitness concerns."

Mexes is still out, right? We should get an updated roster:

From AFP "one day ago":

Revised France squad

Goalkeepers
Hugo Lloris (Lyon)
Steve Mandanda (Marseille)
Cedric Carrasso (Bordeaux)

Defenders
Eric Abidal (Barcelona/ESP)
Mathieu Debuchy (Lille)
Adil Rami (Valencia/ESP)
Patrice Evra (Manchester United/ENG)
Anthony Reveillere (Lyon)
Younes Kaboul (Tottenham/ENG)
Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal/ENG)
Jeremy Mathieu (Valencia/ESP)

Midfielders
Alou Diarra (Marseille)
Yohan Cabaye (Newcastle/ENG)
Yann Mvila (Rennes)
Florent Malouda (Chelsea/ENG)
Jeremy Menez (Paris SG)
Samir Nasri (Manchester City/ENG)
Marvin Martin (Sochaux)
Mathieu Valbuena (Marseille)

Forwards
Bafetimbi Gomis (Lyon)
Kevin Gameiro (Paris SG)
Loic Remy (Marseille)
Djibril Cisse (Lazio/ITA)

Just a brief reminder that if France do not win against Albania, we're probably screwed (i.

Euro Qualifying Group D Standings
France – 13 points from 6 matches
Belarus – 12 points from 7 matches
Bosnia and Herzegovina – 10 points from 6 matches
Romania – 8 points from 6 matches
Albania – 8 points from 6 matches
Luxembourg – 1 point from 7 matches

France's Remaining Qualifiers
Friday, September 2, 2011 Away to Albania
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 Away to Romania
Friday, October 7, 2011 Home against Albania
Tuesday, October 11, 2011 Home against Bosnia and Herzegovina

Here is the call-up for next week's qualifiers away to Albania and Romania:

Goalkeepers
Hugo Lloris (Lyon)
Cédric Carrasso (Bordeaux)
Stève Mandanda (Marseille)

Defenders
Bacary Sagna (Arsenal)
Younès Kaboul (Tottenham)
Eric Abidal (Barcelona)
Patrice Evra (Manchester United)
Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal)
Adil Rami (Valencia)
Anthony Réveillère (Lyon)

Midfielders
Yohan Cabaye (Newcastle)
Alou Diarra (Marseille)
Yann M'Vila (Rennes)
Marvin Martin (Sochaux)
Blaise Matuidi (PSG)

Attacking Midfielders/Wingers
Samir Nasri (Manchester City)
Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich)
Jérémy Ménez (PSG)
Mathieu Valbuena (Marseille)
Florent Malouda (Chelsea)

Strikers
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
Kevin Gameiro (PSG)
Guillaume Hoarau (PSG)
Loïc Rémy (Marseille)

That's a squad of 24, which is already one more than France can take to official tournaments, but I still find it curious to see Gael Clichy dropped after having started the previous match in the friendly against Chile.

Friendlies are supposed to be good fun, and this one was. In front of flag-waving supporters in Montpellier, France created a number of chances, and Chile certainly had moments of their own.

Benzema and Martin were standout players for France. Marvin Martin is a fun player to watch. He has a very quick release when he spots a potential pass.

Vocal Laurent Blanc supporter Alou Diarra has just transferred within France's top division (Ligue 1) from Bordeaux to Marseille.

The shortened versions of these club names I can type without worrying about the spelling the full names, though, are much, much cooler.

Olympique de Marseille; and
FC Girondins de Bordeaux.

In the expanded squad of 26 players called up for France's recent three matches, four players were listed as forwards:

Karim Benzema Real Madrid 15 League Goals, approximately 4 goals under Blanc
Kevin Gameiro New Signing for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) 22 league goals for Lorient, 1 goal under Blanc
Loic Remy Marseille 16 league goals, approximately 1 goal under Blanc
Guillaume Hoarau PSG 9 league goals, no goals under Blanc

Feel free to clarify goal tallies in the comments if you have better data sources than me.

Poland 0, France 1

Hoarau
Valbuena Martin Cabaye N'Zogbia
A.Diarra
Evra Abidal Kaboul Sagna
Carrasso

This was the second run-out, by my count, of France's new-look 4-1-4-1, which is quite similar to Barcelona's 4-3-3.

Valbuena on the left is not a typo.

Ukraine 1, France 4

Ukraine opened the scoring in the 53rd minute courtesy of an epic howler from France's backup goalkeeper Steve Mandanda. France replied with a very well taken equalizer from Gameiro, and then ran over Ukraine in the last 10 minutes or so after some of France's best players came on as substitutes.

France drew 1-1 away to Belarus tonight, in European Qualifier number 6 of 10.

Euro Qualifying Group D Standings
France – 13 points from 6 matches
Belarus – 9 points from 6 matches
Romania – 8 points from 6 matches
Albania – 8 points from 5 matches
Bosnia and Herzegovina – 7 points from 5 matches
Luxembourg – 1 point from 6 matches

France have a couple friendlies coming up in the next week visiting the Euro 2012 co-host nations: relatively interesting friendlies.

With France's next Euro Qualifier a week from today, let's a take a look at where things stand:

France's Upcoming Matches
Friday, June 3, 2011 – Qualifier 6 of 10 – Away to Belarus
Monday, June 6, 2011 – A friendly away to Euro 2012 co-host Ukraine
Thursday, June 9, 2011 – A friendly away to Euro 2012 co-host Poland

Euro Qualifying Group D Standings
France – 12 points from 5 matches
Belarus – 8 points from 5 matches
Albania – 8 points from 5 matches
Bosnia and Herzegovina – 7 points from 4 matches
Romania – 5 points from 5 matches
Luxembourg – 1 point from 6 matches

Here are the players called up to face Belarus, who defeated France 1-0 in Paris in September.

I've just watched a couple Lille matches the Coupe de France (French Cup) final victory over Paris Saint-Germain on the weekend and the almost-league-title-clinching victory tonight over Sochaux.

The secret to Lille's success appears to be good players. A fair few of them are French most notably their rock at the back, and France's first-choice right-sided central defender, Adil Rami (who's transferring to Valencia at the end of the season).

French sports minister Chantal Jouanno today said: "Laurent Blanc was present for the first time at this type of meeting. He wasn't organiser or pilot. He discovered the debate about quotas.

"He offered no opinions, unlike other participants at the meeting who were prepared for this debate.