Credit: Imago

Daniel Lewis

Mon 30 March 2026 13:29, UK Updated Mon 30 March 2026 14:39, UK

Lucas Digne was unable to lay down a serious marker to start for France at the World Cup as the Aston Villa defender struggled in Sunday’s victory over Colombia.

The 32-year-old played the full 90 minutes as Les Bleus’ ran out 3-1 winners in the friendly in Maryland, USA.

Digne was earning his 56th cap for France at senior level, having been an unused substitute in the win over Brazil a dew days earlier.

He did not have the best of contests on the face of it, however, if the reaction from the French media is anything to go by.

Unai Emery will just be grateful to have Digne seemingly fit and well for Villa’s clash with Bologna next week, but the full-back clearly has work to do ahead of the World Cup.

Lucas Digne was France’s joint-worst rated player vs Colombia

Digne would have been using this final international break prior to the summer to nail down the starting spot at left-back for France.

However, judging by the metrics supplied by Sofascore, that was not the case.

Indeed, Digne got a 6.6 rating in terms of his statistical performance, which was the joint-worst of any France starter alongside Warren Zaire-Emery.

Digne failed to win any tackles and won exactly half of his six aerial duels, while giving away one free-kick.

L’Equipe, the biggest national newspaper in France, gave Digne a 5/10 and pointed out that there were “concerns” over Digne’s start to the match in particular.

Colombia appeared to be targeting that flank, so life was certainly not made easy for the former Everton player.

However, the same outlet does go on to add that Digne “didn’t fare too badly overall” and did catch the eye a little more offensively.

This is reflecting in the figures, as he registered one key pass and fired away a couple of shots, albeit both of those were blocked.

Get French Football News were slightly less critical of Digne, giving him a 6/10 and stating he is likely ahead of Hernandez in the pecking order, although that says more about the latter than the former.

How has Digne performed for Villa this season?

Digne was superb in Villa’s win over West Ham last time out, as can be seen in the graphic further up the page.

He won six out of his seven aerial duels and registered two key passes, highlighting both sides to his game.

However, as highlighted by Sofascore above , Digne has not been able to maintain consistent high levels on performances, averaging a slightly below-par score of 6.74 this campaign in all competitions.

Four assists is a good return for a full-back, while he has also more than held his own defensively, but Digne needs to ensure he ends the campaign on a high at club level if he is to be a starter for France this summer.