Gameiro gunning for Gignac's Euro place against Barça

Andre-Pierre Gignac was forced out of a training game with the France squad on Saturday and there are doubts about the Tigres striker’s fitness with the European Championship now just two weeks away. Fans of Les Bleus were not overly concerned about the loss of former Marseille man, who bagged 33 goals in the Liga MX, instead seeing an opportunity to push for a player who was excluded from the initial list for the tournament: Kévin Gameiro, who is among Didier Deschamps' reserve players.

With Karim Benzema excluded from the squad, Anthony Martial too young to be expected to shoulder the responsibility, Olivier Giroud coming off an unremarkable season with Arsenal and Gignac plying his trade in a less competitive league, Gameiro is alongside Antoine Griezmann Les Bleus’ most in-form striker. The Sevilla forward has hit 29 in all competitions this season, and nine in his last eight games. If he scores against Barcelona in the Copa final he will take his tally for the season to 30, far exceeding his previous tallies at the Sánchez Pizjuán (22 in 2013-14 and 17 last season) when he was labouring under the shadow of Carlos Bacca.

With the Colombian now at Milan and other strikers brought in last summer -- Fernando Llorente and Ciro Immobile -- failing to make much of an impact, Gameiro has fired and now has little serious competition for the main forward’s role at the club. Against Barcelona he has another target to reach for: a call-up to the France squad for Euro 2016.