England v France: Ça rentre à la maison?

As England and France prepare to face off against each other in a hotly-anticipated World Cup quarter-final, the French football coach has spoken highly of the talented Three Lions today: “Weak points? They don’t have any, that’s clear,” said Didier Deschamps.

It’s an indication of just how close tomorrow’s game between the highest-ranked European sides left in the World Cup is likely to be. 

Deschamps’ side – the reigning champions – will head into the match as the favourite, but by a small margin: bookies give France a 40.3% chance of winning, ahead of England’s 32.4%.

While England has played France twice before in World Cups and beaten them on both occasions, the French team has won seven of the past eight matches between the nations across all competitions, including the most recent face-off in 2017. 

How does this year’s French team compare to the one which took home the coveted trophy at the 2018 World Cup? While French goalie Hugo Lloris is certainly still a strong match for England’s Jordan Pickford, he is not considered quite the world-class shot-stopper he was back then. Deschamps has also admitted, “We were perhaps stronger on set pieces in other years.” Set pieces, he adds “remain one of the strengths of the England team.”

Yet ultimately many pundits believe that the outcome could all boil down to one key question, or indeed, one key player: will the Three Lions find a way to keep a shackle on the 23-year-old French wonderkid, Kylian Mbappé?

With his rapid pace, deadly precision, renowned dribbling abilities and dazzling performance in Qatar so far, Mbappé is quite possibly the best player in the world right now. 

“Stop Kylian Mbappé, and you stop France – he is the only reason I fear them,” declared former Englander defender Rio Ferdinand today. “Plenty of defenders could keep Mbappé quiet for an hour or so, but only the very best can do it for 90-plus minutes.”

Yet the good news for England, according to Ferdinand, is that “Kyle Walker is definitely fast enough to deal with Mbappé. He is probably the only defender on the planet who would be happy to take him on in a race.”

Walker himself has spoken confidently of his mission to contain Mbappé, adamant that one exceptional forward will not hold the squad back from becoming the first England team to go on and lift silverware since the World Cup winners of 1966. 

“We respect that he is a good player in good form, but I am not going to roll out a red carpet for him,” said the England and Manchester City defender. “He’s not going to stand in my way of winning a World Cup for my country.”

French player, Youssouf Fofana, is yet to be convinced. “Hats off to him if he can stop Kylian,” said the midfielder who also plays for Monaco. If Walker succeeds, Fofana added, there are 19 other teams in the French league, yet to crack the code, who will be queuing up for his winning formula.  

The winner of Saturday’s match will play either Morocco or Portugal in the semi-final. Could it be… coming home?

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