The England versus France matchup in the Quarter finals of this World Cup is perhaps the most anticipated match of the tournament so far. Only one team will be able to move on to the semifinals, and the pressure is clearly on England going into the game. The French are coming off a World Cup win in 2018, and although they certainly would love to get a chance to repeat there’s not a ton of pressure on the team to do so.
Meanwhile, 2022 may be one of the last chances for some of the older heads in the England squad to win something with the national team. Gareth Southgate’s squad has been really close in their last two appearances in top tier tournaments, but have come up short in the Euros, at home, and at the previous World Cup. England has looked clearly dominant in spurts during this tournament, as has France. Which team looks to be in better shape heading into their head-to-head matchup?
France Has More Fire Power Offensively
If you look at the monetary value of English players it may be hard to believe that there’s more talent on France’s side of the ball. Mbappé, Griezmann, and Giroud are a trio that are hard to beat. We’re not just talking about England’s ability to match that offensive firepower. In general any national team on the planet would love to have a trio like this. If Karim Benzema is ready to see even a couple of minutes in the match then it becomes virtually impossible for any team to match that kind of fire power.
That doesn’t mean that England’s offense isn’t capable of finding the back of the net and making it tough on France. The problem lies mostly on England’s right and left backs. They won’t be able to head up field as much as they did in the game against Senegal. This of course, over putting Mbappé one on one with Harry Maguire in the open space.
England Has To Rely On Overall Stability
This is pretty much a continuation of what we were just mentioning. England likes to play with open space, and have their wing players make runs all over the other team’s defensive third. They’ll be forced to find offense with fewer players though than they’re typically used to. This is actually the way to go. You want to make sure that you’re able to generate offense without leaving yourself too exposed at the back. That’s not to say that England needs to play scared against France. It’s just that they need to be more disciplined and defensively conscious even when they’re on the attack.
What does this mean? It’s usually simple concepts. You don’t want all of your midfielders setting foot in the box on every offensive possession. If the right back goes on the attack the left back should stay put. Perhaps in all of their games so far they haven’t had to be too defensively conscious. This is not something that France is going to let you get away with.
Our Prediction
One of the benefits of betting on such a highly contested game is that both sides are getting favorable numbers. That means if you like a particular team you can make some money either way. You don’t necessarily have to bet the best number even if you don’t love the pick. In this particular matchup we have to say that we really love the +130 number on France! Remember that this is the number for the outright win in 90 minutes. If the matchup goes to overtime the draw wins.
