‘A pleasure to play with Pogba’ – France star Kante delighted with reunion

France star N’Golo Kante has spoken of his pleasure at having the opportunity to play alongside Paul Pogba once again.

Chelsea’s Kante got the only goal of the game on Saturday as France sealed their place in the Nations League Finals with a 1-0 win over Portugal.

The strike preserved his remarkable record with Pogba of having not lost a match when they have played together. They have featured 26 times in conjunction for Les Bleus and have chalked up 20 wins and six draws.

While Pogba continues to come under scrutiny for his performances at Manchester United, he has a firm fan in his international colleague.

“He’s been injured for a while and it had been a while since we had played together,” Kante told TF1 show ‘Telefoot’. “We remember the World Cup that we played together. It’s a pleasure to play with Paul.

“On the pitch, we felt great. I’m satisfied with the performance and the performance of the team. We were at the level we needed to be at.

“There’s a lot expected of us. We’re the world champion and the European Championship will be another challenge, but it’s certain that we’re a great team.”

Looking away from international football back to club side Chelsea, Kante has targeted a place in the top four of the Premier League for his team this season.

“The Chelsea team has changed in recent years,” he said. “We’ve recruited not a bad number of players and we are going to try and win some titles. We want to qualify as quickly as we possibly can for the next Champions League.”

Frank Lampard’s side currently find themselves fifth in the standings on 15 points, three behind early pace-setters Leicester.

Their next domestic challenge is a home match with Newcastle next Saturday.

Before then, Kante will return to the international stage as France have a Nations League match with Sweden. Having already secured top spot in the group, however, head coach Didier Deschamps may elect to rotate his squad to allow some players a break before they return to action with their club sides.