Giroud, who scored five goals in 18 appearances for Chelsea following his £18million move from Arsenal in January, but has yet to hit the target in this tournament.
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Right wing-back Thomas Meunier is suspended for Belgium, so a defensive reshuffle will be required.
Thibaut Courtois was superb in goal, giving a performance in stature to match his giant 6ft 5in frame when Brazil finally came knocking after pulling a late goal back through Renato Augusto.
“There is no revenge in football, I don’t like that word”.
The two sides are competing for a place in the World Cup final, and ahead of the game, it is Belgium who marginally boast the most impressive performers. We have a new generation and we don’t know their full potential.
But France also have the ghost of previous high-profile failures behind them, specifically the Euro 2016 final that they should in theory have strolled against Portugal only to choke on home turf. “But we’re not thinking about it too much, we’re going to be focused on the pitch and our game”.
Belgium won two of those, including the last one: an exhibition three years ago at Stade de France when the Belgians took a three-goal lead five minutes into the second half and held on to win 4-3.
Looking at the Opta stats used to power Sky Sports Fantasy Six-a-Side’s scoring system, we pick out the players averaging the most points per game in Russian Federation so far…
As he puts it, that is the key to success: “This group of players needs to play without fear to keep all of its options open”. That was the last competitive match between the two countries but there have been eight worldwide friendlies since.
At set pieces, French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who plays for Spurs, will be wary of the aerial threat posed by club teammates and Belgium defenders Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen.
“That’s a very tough thing to do (stopping Mbappe)”.
‘He has not told me what he is going to do, ‘ shrugged the Manchester City player. “We’ve never been in such a situation, and that is why we need our team spirit more than ever against France”. “We’ve been confident from the start and we’re not asking any questions of ourselves”.
“Thierry and I met when he was very young, and I was sure that he would go far”, the French coach said of Henry.
Three of the last four meetings between the sides have produced under 2.5 goals in total.
Roberto Martinez smiles and reacts to the phrase “There comes a World Cup semifinalist” as he approaches the ESPN team that will talk to him at the Belgium base camp in Dedovsk. “Les Bleus” lost their first three (1958, 1982, 1986), but have won their last two (1998 & 2006). France won’t enjoy the time on the ball and space to use it the likes of and Australia granted in earlier World Cup 2018 games.
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It all means Deschamps and his support staff will have being doing some second-guessing about how Belgium’s attacking players will approach Tuesday’s challenge, motivated by the lure of a first World Cup final. And Belgium enters Tuesday’s Russian Federation 2018 semifinal on a red-hot 24-game unbeaten streak.
