England - France: Star Wars at World Cup 2022
*England - France: 2pm on Sunday 11/12, on MetaSports.
Since Brazil's world championships in 1958 and 1962, no country has been able to successfully defend the Gold Cup. In the last three World Cups, the winning teams were eliminated from the group stage. However, France proved the strength of the defending champion on the way to overcome the group stage and convincingly beat Poland in the round of 16, thereby getting closer to the goal of standing on top of the world twice in a row. .
The attack with the explosive Kylian Mbappe is the basis for France to realize the above dream. The PSG star currently leads the list of top scorers at this year's tournament with five goals and recently surpassed Pele's record when becoming the player with the most goals before turning 24 in the World Cup. Cup (nine goals).
Immediately after the 3-1 victory over Poland, the match where Mbappe scored twice, the 23-year-old player created a wave of mixed opinions when he refused to attend the press conference. Explaining the above action, Mbappe said that he is fully focused on playing football at the World Cup and does not want to be distracted by questions from the media. "I don't want to waste time on side issues," the PSG striker said. "It is a privilege to play in the World Cup, so my team and I are all aiming for the ultimate goal of defending the championship."
Besides Mbappe, France's striker Olivier Giroud is making the fans forget the absence of Karim Benzema. The goal of the AC Milan striker in the round of 16 helped him surpass Thierry Henry's all-time scoring record for France when he reached the 52-goal mark. However, Giroud believes that this record will soon be caught by his junior Mbappe in the future. Midfielder Adrien Rabiot also recently commented that the 23-year-old star is the most powerful weapon that France owns. Therefore, Les Bleus' opponent in the quarter-finals is England need to solve the problem called Mbappe if they want to win a ticket to play in the semi-finals.
Up to the quarter-finals, France is the team that launched the most number of second-place shots with 75 shots. However, the defending champion's attack will face challenges when facing one of the most solid defences in the tournament. With key faces in the defense like Jordan Pickford, Harry Maguire and John Stones, England are on a three-match clean sheet streak and have only conceded two goals.
Sharing about the arrangement of personnel to accompany Mbappe, coach Gareth Southgate believes that defender Kyle Walker can do a good job of blocking the star of the French team. "Walker has the ability to make it difficult for all strikers, but he will need the cover of his teammates when facing Mbappe," said the 52-year-old coach. Besides the Man City player, Southgate is likely to still use Bukayo Saka in the right corridor, when the 21-year-old striker is always aggressive in terms of defensive support and possesses an abundant physical foundation. Saka and Walker will form a shield to limit Mbappe's influence on France's play in the next match.
In addition to the case of Raheem Sterling who is having family problems, the "Three Lions" will have the strongest squad when facing France. He has also won twice in both matches against France in previous World Cups.
Coach Southgate is facing the opportunity to become the first leader to lead the "Three Lions" to the semi-finals in two World Cups if he overcomes France. However, in a total of eight appearances in the quarterfinals, England had six defeats.
On the French side, coach Didier Deschamps is expected to keep the squad that won against Poland in the round of 16, with Theo Hernandez fully recovered from injury and guaranteed at left-back. In France's last 9 matches at the World Cup when Mbappe was on the field, Les Bleus did not lose to any opponent. Recent confrontation history is also in favor of Deschamps' side as France are unbeaten in seven of their last eight encounters with England in all competitions.
According to Stats Performance, the defending champion's progression rate is 40.3%, while England's is 32.4%. 27.3% is the ratio of the two teams drawing and entering extra time.
Anh: Pickford, Walker, Stones, Maguire, Shaw, Henderson, Rice, Bellingham, Saka, Kane, Foden.
France: Lloris, Kounde, Varane, Upamecano, Theo Hernandez, Tchouameni, Rabiot, Dembele, Griezmann, Mbappe, Giroud.
