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Though France came very close to being bounced by Ukraine in their playoffs to determine one of UEFA's final World Cup spots, they have the talent, experience, and pretty cushy World Cup draw to afford them a potentially deep run in next month's tournament. Today, the French Football Federation announced the 23 it'll be sending to Brazil to represent Arsenal's favorite non-English nation, and the three Arsenal players you'd expect to make the squad made the squad.
Olivier Giroud, Laurent Koscielny, and Bacary Sagna will all be part of the Brazil-bound group -- part of a formidable team that includes Franck Ribery (currently the only non-disgruntled member of Bayern Munich, it would seem), Karim Benzema, Paul Pogba, Blaise Matiudi, and Hugo Lloris. There are also a number of potential 2014-15 Arsenal players representing France -- transfer rumor names include Antoine Griezmann and Loic Remy (and, to a lesser, Give Me Sport/Bleacher Report/Goal.com degree, Mathieu Debuchy, Mathieu Valbuena, Clement Grenier and Moussa Sissoko), with additional potential targets Maxime Gonalons and Morgan Schneiderlin in the French reserves.
Most notable in the omissions for the French team are two Arsenal-turned-Manchester City turncoats, Gael Clichy and (drumroll, please) Samir Nasri, while Patrice Evra and Mamadou Sakho (from Manchester United and Liverpool respectively) made the team, even though they didn't win any trophies.
Votre line-ups sont ici.