France vs Australia – Lineups, Predictions & Stats Preview 16 June 2018
Group C of the 2018 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Kazan on Saturday 16th June, and the most popular France v Australia tip is for the Frenchmen to run out comfortable winners against the Socceroos. With the depth of attacking options that France will have available to them including the likes of Olivier Giroud, Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe, Les Bleus should have more than enough firepower to see off the Australians.
France Probable Lineups And Stats
The quality of the French squad could make it difficult to predict their line up purely because they have such a wealth of options. Lloris will be the number one goalkeeper, Sidibe and Benjamin Mendy will fill the fullback spots provided Mendy can prove his fitness, and Laurent Koscielny will likely line up alongside Barcelona’s Samuel Umtiti in the centre of defence. A strong defence that only conceded six goals in their qualification for the World Cup will be protected by N’Golo Kante in front of them. In midfield, Pogba will be at the heart of the team, likely with Adrien Rabiot next to him. Midfield is a very strong area for France, who boasted an 88% passing accuracy in the qualifying group having completed 5167 out of a total 5817 passes attempted. Up front, France are likely to start with Mbappe, Giroud and Griezmann, with the likes of Lacazette and Kevin Gameiro available from the bench. France’s firepower is tremendous, as evidenced by them managing 158 total attempts on goal in their group, scoring 18 goals.
Australia Probable Lineups And Stats
Australia will line up with a fairly youthful team, marshalled by some older statesmen to shore things up. Mathew Ryan will start in goal, with Wright, Sainsbury and Degenek in front of him in defence. Ahead of them will be the duo of Huddersfield’s Aaron Mooy and Aston Villa’s Mile Jedinak. As a unit, they will be looking to protect Ryan who conceded 1.1 goals a game in their qualification group, and a further three in four playoff games. Gersbach, Rogic, Leckie and the veteran Tim Cahill will line up behind Tomi Juric, hoping to add to the 16 goals that they managed in qualifying from Group B of the Asia section.
France v Australia – Head To Head
The two sides have only ever met once in a competitive game, and surprisingly Australia ran out 1-0 victors on that day in June 2001. Playing in the FIFA Confederations Cup in Japan, Australia scored in the 60th minute through Clayton Zane, and they were able to hold on to the lead to claim a shock victory. However, France had the last laugh as they went on to win the tournament, making them the second ever team to be World Cup Winners, Continental Cup Winners and Confederation Cup Winners simultaneously. The sides have met in friendly competition twice since then, with France undefeated on both occasions. A 1-1 draw was played out in November of 2001, and then France hosted Australia in 2013 at the Parc des Princes stadium. Here France were dominant, romping to a 6-0 victory.
Expert Tip
Looking at the World Cup game between the two sides, there surely can only be one winner in this. France should prove much too strong and will likely win this at a canter. While France are favourites on odds, the expert tip would be to make the most of their dominance and look into betting on France to win both halves, and Didier Deschamps’ men not to concede as well.
Interesting Facts and Information
- France haven’t lost in their last 4 games.
- France wins 1st half in 81% of their matches, Australia in 23% of their games.
- France wins 81% of halftimes, Australia wins 23%.
- The winner of their last meeting was France.
- On their last meeting France won by 6 goals.
- France scores 2 goals when playing at home and Australia scores 1.25 goals when playing away (in average).
- When France leads 1-0 at home, they win in 83% of their games.
- When Australia leads 0-1 away, they win in 40% of their games.
- When France is down 0-1 home, they win 0% of their games.
- When Australia is down 1-0 away, they win 0% of their games.
- France have scored at least one goal for 9 consecutive games.
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