Defending champions France arrive at the World Cup in poor form after finishing behind Croatia and Denmark in their Nations League group. Les Bleus, on the other hand, went undefeated in their World Cup Qualifying campaign, winning Group D with 18 points after eight games, six more than Ukraine, who finished second. Didier Deschamps depended on his potent combination of 14-goal scorers Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe, and Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema during qualification.
There are many well-known players from home, both past, and present, like seasoned attacker Olivier Giroud and veteran goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. Raphael Varane and Kurt Zouma each made four appearances during qualification, with the former racing to recover from straining his hamstring. However, injuries will prevent Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante, and Wesley Fofana from competing. Meanwhile, Anthony Martial is still a peripheral player while William Saliba has made an impact for Arsenal at the appropriate time. Matteo Guendouzi, a former Arsenal midfielder, is now a fixture at Marseille, and Christopher Nkunku, a target for Chelsea, is thriving for RB Leipzig.
France’s history on the international scene is polarised between triumph and defeat. The current world champions were eliminated in disgrace from the 2002 World Cup in South Africa after earning just one point and failing to score a goal in the group stage. There was also Zinedine Zidane’s notorious headbutt in the 2006 final against Italy.
Impressive qualifying results for France revealed an all-around strength, which is to be expected from a team loaded with top-tier athletes. France enters another World Cup among a host of teams that are heavy favorites to win it all. They are deadly in attack and impenetrable at the back. Deschamps’ team is still under some scrutiny due to their sluggish Nations League campaign and lower-ranked opponents in their qualifying group, with the exception of Ukraine.
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