FIFA WORLD CUP 2018 – France vs Australia PREVIEW
One of the best nations in the tournament France meet one of the biggest underdogs Australia. It’s pretty much the David vs goliath, nobody expects Australia to pull anything off, but you never know France are the type of nation who will either play absolutely amazing or stink it up and have a shockingly bad tournament just look at 1998 and then 2002 or compare 2006 to 2010. France are of course the heavy favourites for this game and should win comfortably, but Australia will definitely try and shock the world.
FRANCE
One of the most exciting teams going into the tournament. France have so much exciting youth coming into this tournament like Mbappe Lemar Dembele etc. France have an unreal all around team with a solid GK, good defence, solid midfield and an amazing attack. Their weakness could be the full back position because Sidibe Mendy Pavard Lucas aren’t world class players, they’re decent players that can get the job done but nothing to blow your mind. France’s attack will be their biggest strength as their attacking of Griezmann Dembele and Mbappe will be the one to watch out for because they have everything. Skill, incredible pace, goal scoring, playmaking I mean simply everything and if they need a target man they still have Giroud coming off the bench or maybe even starting sometimes and impact players like Lemar and Fekir. French midfield consists of world class players like Pogba Kante and then solid players like Matuidi, Tolisso, N’Zonzi and their main centre backs are Varane and Umtiti. They literally have one of the most loaded teams in the tournament full of depth and they love to play exciting football. Didier Deschamps is their manager who has been criticized over the years, but this is his chance to prove the doubters wrong and the French will try to go and win the World Cup which they’re definitely capable of.
France’s world cup qualifying campaign was relatively straight forward although they had Sweden and Netherlands in their group. They Won 7, Drew 2 and lost 1. The only loss came to Sweden who actually pushed France will the end for that 1st spot but a couple of bad results against Bulgaria and Netherlands cost Sweden and that enabled France to get the 1st place. The French side did have a couple of really god awful results like drawing Luxembourg 0-0 at home which was one of the weirdest results ever, they also drew with Belarus. However other than some blips, France did take care of their job and advanced without needing playoffs.
France played three games before the world cup against Ireland, Italy and USA. They played some great football beating Ireland 2-0 and Italy 3-1, punishing both teams with their super talented attack, however once again they had a blip against USA drawing them 1-1, a USA side who basically played their youth team and that is a worrying sign because France still can’t get over having these shocking results, even after showing some great form taking apart a nation like Italy. I don’t know what these results really mean for France, but what I do know is that their attacking players are looking good right now, Mbappe Griezmann and Dembele are in solid form. They could miss Giroud in the opening game however due to a dangerous head clash with Miazga in a friendly.
AUSTRALIA
Not many people expect Australia to do much at this world cup and they will look to prove everyone wrong. Australia are coached by Bert Van Maarwijk who has taken the Netherlands to a world cup final 8 years ago which instantly tells us that this team should be well organised and could be a tough outing in this world cup. Now of course talent wise Australia lack it. They have a suspect defence which could be exposed badly by the French superstar led attack. Australia’s key players will be Jedinak, Leckie and Mooy. Also Rogic will have to burst forward from the midfield to score goals as Australia are not a very good goal scoring side. Australia will have to sit back against France for obvious reasons, they’re not good enough to just go out and attack. Australia’s talisman, their greatest player ever Tim Cahill will be featuring in his 4th and final world cup. The 38 year old will most likely come off the bench and could still make an impact if Australia need someone to score. If Tim Cahill comes on and scores it’d be absolutely incredible. Australia will have to be very organised and their suspect defence cant be exposed otherwise they will be a punching bag for France and the other two teams. Australia’s lack of goal scoring is alerting too because someone will have to make something. Really, luck will have to be on Australia’s side for them to do something.
Australia went through three stages of qualifying. They first had to go through a group stage with Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Bangladesh which they got through with ease winning 7 out of 8 only losing to Jordan and topping the group by 5 points scoring 29 goals in 8 games. In the final group stage round they had to face Japan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iraq and Thailand. This round was very tough for Australia, they only managed to finish 3rd in that group behind Japan and Saudi Arabia meaning Australia had to go into the playoffs to get themselves into the world cup and had to face Syria over two legs. Australia drew the 1st leg in Syria 1-1, but then drew the 2nd leg 1-1 too after 90 mins after conceding first. Australia advanced after their legend Tim Cahill scored a 109th minute extra time goal to give them the 2-1 win. Their legend scored both goals that game and took Australia to the world cup. It was an insanely tough qualifying campaign for Australia and could’ve missed out on the world cup.
Australia are actually going into this world cup in great form beating Czech Republic 4-0 and winning against an okay Hungary side 1-2. This is definitely a good sign, but then again both nations they beat are just alright teams although beating Czech’s 4-0 is pretty impressive even if they have fallen as a footballing nation. I don’t think these results do tell anything though as Australia will face much tougher competition at the world cup.
What to Expect From The Game
I think we can all admit that we all expect France to win this game and win it comfortably. France are expected to put on a show with their pacey, creative, goal scoring attack. Australia will sit back and try to sniff out the French attack, however their defence seems suspect and inexperienced on this stage which could cost them dearly. If France get an early goal this could get ugly for Australia. For Australia to win they’re going to have to take any chance they get because they wont get too many, their defenders will have to play a game of their lives and even then its quite unlikely that they will be able to pull it off. For France the key is going to be to stay professional, don’t underestimate their opponent and do their job and not have another result like USA in a friendly, or drawing Luxembourg. Australia can only hope for the French to have a blip again, but if France clicks we can all expect a goal fest. This will probably end in a 3-0/4-0 maybe even more.
ODDS – Decimal (WilliamHill)
France Win – 1.25
Draw – 6.00
Australia Win – 11.00
KICK OFF – 16th June 2018 – 11am UK Time
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