France vs Argentina Preview

France and Argentina are two teams who haven’t really set the World Cup alight this year and they both face each other with the Argentines looking to keep riding their luck.

France started with a rather fortunate 2-1 win over an Australian team that we didn’t think had the capability to stop the attacking talents of Les Bleus.

France beat Peru 1-0 in their next game by a fortunate goal from Kylian Mbappe.

Their last group match against Denmark was so boring that Christian Eriksen personally apologized after the 0-0 draw and promised to make the Dane’s next game more exciting.

This France team has failed to click with the attacking trio of Kylian Mbappe, Olivier Giroud and Antoine Griezmann struggling to build any chemistry together and they will need to sort themselves out before this game or they could be heading home.

Argentina were lucky to make it out of the group stage after a very poor start to their campaign.

The South Americans drew 1-1 against minors Iceland in their first game before going on to lose their next game 3-0 against Croatia.

The previous results meant they had to win their last game against Nigeria, and that they did, but it wasn’t that straightforward.

The Argentines led in the first half after Lionel Messi scored his first goal and the tournament’s hundredth goal.   Nigeria equalized with a penalty in the second half.

The Argentines began to push for the winner and they were caught out on multiple occasions by an unlucky Nigeria who were inexperienced and not clinical enough to take their chances.

The winner finally came from the unlikeliest of sources when Marcos Rojo volleyed in the winner with his right foot on the 86^th minute.

Argentina will be looking to ride their luck in this match again.

As most people expect, France are favourites to progress to the quarterfinal stage of the tournament.

Possible starting lineups:

France

Argentina

Results of each team’s last 5 matches across all leagues and competitions

France

LAST FIVE GAMES						DATE	COMPETITION
D	Denmark		0-0		France	26 Jun, 2018	FIFA World Cup
W	France		1-0		Peru	21 Jun, 2018	FIFA World Cup
W	France		2-1		Australia	16 Jun, 2018	FIFA World Cup
D	France		1-1		United States	9 Jun, 2018	International Friendly
W	France		3-1		Italy	1 Jun, 2018	International Friendly

Argentina

LAST FIVE GAMES						DATE	COMPETITION
W	Nigeria		1-2		Argentina	26 Jun, 2018	FIFA World Cup
L	Argentina		0-3		Croatia	21 Jun, 2018	FIFA World Cup
D	Argentina		1-1		Iceland	16 Jun, 2018	FIFA World Cup
W	Argentina		4-0		Haiti	30 May, 2018	International Friendly
L	Spain		6-1		Argentina	27 Mar, 2018	International Friendly

H2H