URUGUAY
VS
FRANCE
23th June 2018 Otkrytiye Arena (Moscow)
Fifa Ranking
Uruguay: 14
France: 7
Better placed team to win*:
France. If Cavani was playing, better placed for the win would be Uruguay
Fear Factor**:
No. It's obviously a very big occasion for both sides. Given the head-to-head matches, France has never won a single game in their 7 attempts. A very big miss for the South Americans is Edinson Cavani. This is a big relief for the French defence. On the other side - the world-class defence in the face of Godin and Gimenez are up against the teen sensation Mbappe and another world-class performer in Griezmann.
Uruguay:
coach: Oscar W. Tabarez
captain: Diego Godin
missing players: Cavani
France:
coach: Didier Deschamps
captain: Hugo Lloris
missing players: Matuidi
MATCH PREDICTIONS:
It was destined to be a tight affair between two very strong sides. More so now - when we know that E. Cavani is not playing. Expect a very compact defence wall from the South Americans, nothing like the Argentina defence who played like they met each other just before kick off. Oscar Tabarez will cut all the spaces in which Mbappe could run like the wind and hurt them. Counter-attacking is gonna be the main weapon for La Celeste. Uruguay is a very solid team which feel comfortable even when not on the ball. At the other end France like to keep possession just as much as they like to counter-attack. They could try on purpose to give the ball to the South Americans and provoke mistakes in their build-up play. We all, as football fans, want to see an open game with lots of goals at both ends but the logic suggests otherwise. Under 2.5 GOALS seems logical. This France squad conceded 3 times from this awful Argentina team so this means they are not so solid at the back, as the names of their defenders suggest. A narrow win for Uruguay should not surprise anyone. The spaces which France enjoy the most when attacking will not be existing today and they will find it extremely hard to break the Uruguayan wall given that one of their star man, Paul Pogba, is underperforming and against Argentina lost the ball at least 10 times in situations when he was not pressed like he would be today. Given the importance of the fixture and the teams involved, over 3.5 cards seem like a good bet.
* based on analysing the overall condition of the teams involved, the current form of the teams, what history suggests about the game ,the venue of the match, the expectations
** based on h2h matches and team performances at similar level of competition and experience levels of both squads
