FIFA World Cup
World Cup 2018: France vs Argentina Preview
The eagerly awaited knockout stages of the 2018 World Cup will commence on Saturday with a titanic clash. Le Bleus will take on La Albiceleste in the Kazan Arena. This will be the 12th meeting between the two sides. Argentina have won 6 of those encounters and France have won 2. The South American side has even managed to keep a clean sheet on 8 of the previous 11 match ups. Although these historical figures favor Argentina, this time around things are more complicated. France seem to be the heavy favorites in this fixture.
A Titanic Clash of the Heavyweights:
France are on the back of a strong run in the group stages. They were unbeaten throughout their 3 games and conceded only 1 goal as they ran out winners of Group C. Although France have favorable results. Le Bleus are not playing to their full capacity. Even though they have arguably one of the best squads on paper in the world in terms of talent and depth, the players don’t seem to be playing with each other harmoniously. Didier Deschamps will be looking to make it happen it today’s game.
Argentina on the other hand have been flirting with danger. They barely managed to qualify for the knockout rounds. Their campaign started out poorly as they drew 1-1 with Iceland and suffered a 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Croatia. They did get the job done against Nigeria thanks to Leo Messi’s brilliance and Marcos Rojo’s divine intervention in the dying moments of the game. Argentina have also been poor by their standards. They have very little intent going forward, lapses of concentration in midfield and defense as well as blatant errors at the back. The attacking play seems to almost always lead up to nothing.
Both the teams will be counting on their star-studded front lines to make an impact in today’s game. Leo Messi and Antoine Griezmann will most certainly be in the spotlight for Argentina and France.
Previous Encounters and Interesting Facts:
Argentina have faced off against France only twice in the World Cup before. The first time was in 1930 where they won by a goal to nil. The second time was in the famous 1978 campaign where Argentina won again (2-1) and eventually went on to win the whole tournament.
Coincidentally Argentina in 1978 are the last South American side to beat France. Since then France are unbeaten in 8 World Cup fixtures against CONMEBOL opposition (W4,D4).
France have only conceded 5 shots on target this entire tournament so far and one of them was Mile Jedinak’s penalty for Australia. This is a testament to their strong defense. Argentina’s back line will have to put in a solid shift.
Didier Deschamps will step out on the sidelines as France manager for his 80th game today. Thus he will be setting a new record overtaking Raymond Domenech.
Argentina’s last 4 knockout games in the World Cup have seen only 3 goals. 2 of them were scored by them and one against them.
