'France have no plan for Messi, he can't be stopped' - Ex-France star expresses fears

The reigning World Cup champions face Messi and Argentina in the final of Qatar 2022 on Sunday, and Clichy - who won 20 caps for France - thinks his country will be facing a 'different beast' in La Albiceleste.

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Les Bleus advanced for a second World Cup final in a row on Wednesday, as they beat underdogs Morocco 2-0.

Their victory earned them a place against Argentina, who are fighting to win the tournament for the first time since 1986.

But most notably the South Americans are also battling for their country's superstar, Messi, who is looking to be crowned a World Cup champion in his final go at the competition.

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Facing one of the greatest to ever play the game will likely be on France manager Didier Deschamps' mind - but Clichy doesn't think his country will be able to plan a way to handle him because he's that good.

"I think there's no plan against Messi!" the ex-Arsenal and Manchester City left-back told talkSPORT Breakfast on Thursday.

"You can't plan anything because if he's on it - and he's been on it since the beginning of the competition - you really can't stop him."

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France have plenty of superstars in their team too, including Messi's Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappe - not to mention they came out on top in their Round of 16 tie at the 2018 World Cup against Argentina.

But Clichy - who now plays for Swiss side Servette - thinks Les Bleus will struggle to make sure Mbappe is given service while also stopping Messi.

"The worry for me for France is that already I think Mbappe, who's a tremendous player, they've kind of had to adapt the game for him, so you can see he's more drifting inside," he told talkSPORT.

"At the beginning of the competition [Adrien] Rabiot back then you had to have [Aurélien] Tchouaméni coming in on the left side, which against lesser teams can work.

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"But we've seen against England we could've been punished, against Morocco it could have been difficult. So now we're talking about making sure Mbappe's free to attack, but how do we contain Messi?

"So those two players making the effort for Mbappe in the space behind his back will not be there for Messi. So how do we deal with that?

"Probably Deschamps will have a solution, but I don't see him changing the way he wants to play, because the way he wants to play is to give freedom to Mbappe.

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"So in a way it's coming back to your question, it'll be a game between Mbappe and Messi and who is going to be the most decisive for the occasion."

Clichy went on to say that Messi isn't the only threat Argentina have, but he believes their desire to win their main man his missing piece of silverware in his glittering career will be the reason they'll be more dangerous than ever.

"I think Argentina is a different beast. They can run, they can cover ground. We've seen the second goal they scored in the semi-final it was box to box," he continued.

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"These people are angry. One thing I like but at the same time I don't like, is they're saying they're playing for their country, but they're also playing for Messi.

"This for me is a big thing because I've never heard something like that, and you can be sure because it's his last World Cup, it's going to be different.

"It's not going to be Morocco, it's not going to be any of those teams, they're going to be hungry. They have so much quality with the ball and it's going to be a big test.

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"England was the test for the French team, they passed in terms of goals, but in terms of playing and a way of seeing football I think they failed and Argentina will be a different one and Messi will be there and they'll be ready for it."

Clichy went up against PSG star Messi seven times in his career, winning once, losing five times with the Argentine scoring 10 times across those games.

And the former Gunners man says that France's upcoming opponent is easily the best player he's faced.

"People like statistics, some others don't," he laughed. "But with him it's everything. If you talk about statistics no one can tell you 'yeah but it's only statistics' because I mean, you saw the semi-finals.

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"I remember that game we played at the Nou Camp with Arsenal when he scored four games against us, that goal against Omonia over the head.

"He's doing things that you can't even think of doing in computer games. So he's definitely the best player.

"I've been lucky because I've played with some great players but what is impressive with him is, we say often 'big players, big games', but this guy has been there for last 15 years, every game is a big game for him because he's always performing."

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