LILLE, France (AP) β Franck Ribery’s injury means that Karim Benzema and Olivier Giroud will likely play together at the World Cup, with coach Didier Deschamps finding a way to accommodate them both by shifting Benzema onto the left flank.
Pairing Benzema and Giroud has failed to work in the past, but that was in a 4-4-2 system with both playing as strikers and getting in each other’s way.
Benzema showed on Sunday that he can be lethal cutting in from the left β Ribery’s usual position. He scored twice and set up three more goals as France completed its warm-up matches with an 8-0 thrashing of Jamaica.
Deschamps is likely to keep them both in the line-up for France’s opening match of the World Cup against Honduras in Group E on Sunday.
