France Player Ratings vs Senegal in Winning World Cup Start

France enjoyed a 3-1 win over a tough Senegal team in their first game at the 2026 World Cup. Despite some firm resistance from the Lions of Teranga, Les Bleus’ immense quality was able to shine through and win the day.

After a difficult first half, France were able to pick Senegal off as they began to tire. There were some great individual performances from the 2018 World Cup winners – let’s take a look at each player’s individual rating.

GK: Mike Maignan – 5

Mike Maignan has some almighty shoes to fill, having taken over from Hugo Lloris as France’s number one over the past few years. Sadly, this display didn’t do much to win over his critics.

He faced two shots on target, one of which resulted in a goal. He probably should’ve done better with it, too – thankfully, it had no bearing on the final result.

RB: Jules Kounde – 6

Jules Kounde was offered plenty of opportunities to creep forward in this game. Senegal were willing to sit in deep and hit France on the counter – unfortunately, he spurned most of his chances to create something.

Defensively, Kounde didn’t particularly put a foot wrong, but it was somewhat disappointing to see him struggling in the final third.

CB: Dayot Upamecano – 8

This was an outstanding performance from Dayot Upamecano. The Bayern Munich man has picked up plenty of flak for his previous performances in a blue jersey, but he didn’t put a foot wrong against Senegal.

Using his monolithic strength to great effect, he was able to muscle Senegal’s attacking players off the ball time and time again. With a 100% tackle success rate, this was one of his best performances for France to date.

CB: William Saliba – 6

Arsenal’s William Saliba was by no means poor, but he was largely overshadowed by the wonderful display of his centre-back partner. To this end, he didn’t have much work to do.

Perhaps this was Senegal’s doing? It is entirely possible that they chose to target Upamecano, rather than Saliba – with the benefit of hindsight, this was a bit of a mistake on Pape Thiaw’s part if so.