Saliba and Konate branded ‘centre-back pairing from HELL’

William Saliba and Ibrahima Konate have found fingers pointed at them following France’s 2-0 Nations League quarter-final loss to Croatia on Thursday.

Les Bleus slipped to a disappointing loss in the away leg of their clash, with the two centre-backs slammed for their display as goals from Ante Budimir and Ivan Perisic sunk Didier Deschamps’ side.

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Both have enjoyed stellar campaigns at club level, with Saliba said to be considered ‘the Jude Bellingham of central defenders’ by Real Madrid, who are reportedly willing to make a world-record bid for the Arsenal star. Konate, meanwhile, has been a key figure as Liverpool close in on the Premier League title.

Individually they may have been tremendous, but together they have been branded the “centre-back pairing from hell” by L’Equipe.

Konate was replaced at half-time, with Deschamps saying of the Liverpool man after the game: “I know it’s hard but I saw that he was struggling, not at his best, so I preferred to take him out.”

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Premier League pair slammed

Unsurprisingly, neither scored well in terms of the ratings, with Konate being handed a 2 and Saliba doing a little better on a 3.

“Rarely – perhaps never before – has the Liverpool defender suffered as much,” it said of Konate.

Saliba fared little better in the eyes of the popular French publication, which said: “A defender of his stature can’t have such a weak half… Beaten to the first goal by Budimir, he was then tormented to a terrible extent by the Osasuna veteran, and could even have conceded a penalty.”

The duo face the prospect of being broken up for the second leg with the introduction of Dayot Upamecano.

L’Equipe points out that the Bayern Munich man has been involved in 13 clean sheets out of the last 16 games he has started for France. By the same token, Les Bleus have conceded in the last seven that Saliba and Konate have started together.