We will go on without Benzema and co-Gignac

Pierre-Andre Gignac acknowledged the impact of the absence of Karim Benzema, Mathieu Valbuena and Mamadou Sakho from the French squad, but is confident the new crop of Les Bleus can deliver at Euro 2016.

Benzema’s omission came as no surprise following his part in a sex-tape scandal involving Valbuena, while the Lyon forward is thought to have missed out on Didier Deschamps’ 23-man squad on a performance basis.

“Obviously, when you know how important these three players for the national team… Mamadou (Sakho), Karim (Benzema) and Mathieu (Valbuena). Mathieu is one of the players who was playing the most during the (Didier) Deschamps era, he scored crucial goals.

“Karim, we all know how big of a talent he is, in my opinion, I told him many times, he’s the best number nine in the world with (Luis) Suarez. Mama helped us qualify for the World Cup 2014 with his crazy brace.”

Meanwhile Liverpool Sakho defender remains ineligible after picking up a provisional 30-day ban from UEFA in late April after failing a drug test.

But Gignac looks to emerging talent like Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann and Kingsley Coman to step up and bolster French hopes amid the heightened expectation which comes with hosting the tournament.

“Three important men, but the squad is big, and with all these young players; Paul (Pogba), Antoine (Griezmann), (Kingsley) Coman. I think that this mix between experience and youth is quite good. So I think we have the assets to go far. Then again, because we’re at home, when a team is playing at home, they want to win it. We know it’s going to be tough because everybody will want to take down the French team, we’ll be targets but we will have our eyes on them all as well.”

Report by OmniSport/Reuters