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Tunisia vs France: Les Bleus look to make it three wins from three

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Current World Cup holders France face Tunisia in their final Group D game at the Education City Stadium in Doha.

France have so far been one of the most dominant sides in the tournament and will look to make it three wins from three to take them into the last 16.

Comfortable wins against Australia and Denmark earlier in the group stages see them all but guaranteed to top the group if they avoid defeat against Tunisia.

Tunisia have never progressed further than the group stage at a World Cup and have lost 60% of games in their FIFA World Cup history. In addition, they have never beaten a European side in the tournament.

In the lead up to the World Cup, Tunisia achieved seven clean sheets over a period of eight games, and have so far only conceded one goal during the tournament.

In their first two games, they held Denmark to a 0-0 draw and lost 1-0 to Australia. Their draw against Denmark came as a slight surprise, however they are one of the only two teams who are yet to score a goal, alongside Mexico.

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With their place secured in the last 16, Didier Deschamps may take the opportunity to start some players who are yet to have played at the tournament.

That being said, if Olivier Giroud was to play and score for Les Bleus, he would overtake Thierry Henry to achieve the French national goalscoring record. He equalled this against Australia, scoring his 50th and 51st goals in the same evening.

Strength and depth in the French side may mean that Deschamps has a wide range of players to choose from.

Kylian Mbappe, who has scored three goals so far, may be included to add to the team in attack and continue his goalscoring in the tournament.

Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris is likely to remain in the starting team as Alphonse Areola was missing from training with a minor back issue.

Jalal Kadri only made one change to his Tunisia side for their previous two games, so the team is expected to be similar this time out.

He may however switch up the attack, which currently includes Issam Jebali as striker and Naim Sliti and Youssef Msakni as forwards, to possibly include Wahbi Khazri.

 

 

Author

  • Imogen Ainsworth

    Imogen is a sports journalist with a keen interest in rugby union, cycling, and hockey. She has bylines in The Times, The Rugby Paper, and The Hockey Paper alongside writing for Sports Gazette. She has a degree in sport science from St Mary’s University and is an avid Gloucester Rugby supporter.