France vs Australia Preview

France will begin their World Cup title defence on Tuesday when they face Australia at the Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah.

Les Bleus will be hoping to avoid the same miserable defence of their 1998 World Cup title where they failed to win any of their three group games (D1, L2) in the 2002 edition.

Having beaten Australia in the 2018 opening game in Russia, they will feel that another win here could spell a good omen for them and position them to become just the second team since Brazil in 1962 to win back-to-back World Cup titles.

However, their form heading into this game has been poor as they won just one of their six UEFA Nations League games as favourites (D2, L3), narrowly missing relegation from their group.

They have also been plagued by injuries with 2022 Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema, 2021/22 Bundesliga player of the year Christopher Nkunku, goalkeeper Mike Maignan and midfielder N’Golo Kante all missing.

However, a squad that boasts the likes of Kylian, Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Olivier Giroud in attack should be able to win this reasonably easy group which also features Tunisia and Denmark.

For Australia, this tournament is about putting themselves back on the world map after a series of poor results have made them lose their reputation among footballing giants.

Graham Arnold’s men were the highest-ranked Asian team in 2018 but travel to Qatar this year as the fourth-highest team from the Asian Confederation (#38). They only succeeded in reaching the finals of the World Cup after surviving a nail-biting penalty shootout against Peru in the intercontinental playoffs.

However, having won their last five games, they travel to Doha in high spirits and will be confident of getting one or two good results in this group. An unlikely win or even a draw against France will set the tone for a more successful campaign that will be better than their last outing when they failed to win any of their three group games (D1, L2).