France captain Mbappé on the bench in Nations League match against Belgium

LYON, France (AP) — French captain Kylian Mbappé will not start Monday's UEFA Nations League match against Belgium.

Mbappé played the entire game in a 1:3 defeat against Italy in Paris on Friday and coach Didier Deschamps changed the entire attack to face Belgium in Lyon, with Mbappé replaced in a central role by Marcus Thuram.

Europe's top national teams rotated and rested their star players this week, as they had only limited time to prepare for the season after the European Championships in August.

2024 European champions Spain only started 17-year-old winger Lamine Yamal for the first half of their 4-1 win over Switzerland on Sunday. Spain captain Rodri played his first competitive minutes of the season in Geneva after being rested by Manchester City in their three previous English Premier League matches.

Christian Ronaldo was not in the starting eleven for Portugal on Sunday, came on as a second-half substitute and scored the winning goal against Scotland in Lisbon.

___

AP Football: