France and Germany will lock horns as they prepare for the next round of qualifiers with a friendly in Paris.

Didier Deschamps has named a fairly strong squad as he looks to take his France side back to the heights of the 1990s and early 2000s.

The France manager continues to keep the faith in Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema despite the 25-year-old not having scored for his country in over eight months.

"It's a situation that he has to deal with," Deschamps said. "It is not easy not to play too much, but he has experience and France can give him that (playing time).

"He wants to be more efficient but he can do other things. Setting up goals can also be rewarding. If you ask our opponents, Italy, Spain, and Germany, who are the two or three players they fear, Benzema is among those."

Deschamps also has the option of playing Arsenal forward Olivier Giroud, who has been in good form for his club over the past month or so.

Germany, though, are depleted by injuries, with midfield general Bastian Schweinsteiger ruled out, along with Borussia Dortmund trio Marcel Schmelzer, Mario Gotze and Marco Reus.

That should give a couple more youngsters, that Germany seem to keep producing, a chance to show their talents against a quality side like France.

"This match is an acid test," Germany coach Joachim Low said. "France (have) found (their) old strength. We need to show a top performance if we want to compete. They have a good mix, they are technically and physically great.

"We are second in the FIFA ranking, we are only behind Spain which has a team of the century.

"But we improved our playing style incredibly in the last (few) years. We made a very big step forward. Now we try to optimize that to go to the top."

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Expected lineups: France: Lloris, Sagna, Sakho, Koscielny, Evra, Matuidi, Cabaye, Sissoko, Menez, Benzema, Ribery.

Germany: Adler, Howedes, Mertesacker, Hummels, Lahm, Khedira, Bender, Muller, Ozil, Podolski, Gomez.

Prediction: 3-2 to Germany