France v Australia preview: Mbappé targets World Cup history for Les Blues
This time, reigning champions France are expected to improve upon their 2-1 defeat of Australia in 2018, as they seek to become the first back-to-back winners since Brazil managed the feat in 1962 and continue Europe’s domination of this event with what could be a fifth consecutive World Cup triumph for a UEFA nation.
France’s lead-up to this tournament has been increasingly disastrous, winning just one of their six UEFA Nations League A games as favourites (D2, L3), narrowly missing relegation from their group and subsequently dropping to fourth in the world rankings as a result. Prior to 2022 Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema going down with a potentially tournament-ending thigh injury, a goal of reaching the last four was set by FA President Noël Le Graët, who publicly declared that a contract extension for manager Didier Deschamps “will be up to him” if France make the semi-finals or better.
It is also the second straight World Cup in which Australia had to qualify via the inter-confederation playoffs which, along with their decline from being the highest-ranked Asian nation in June 2018 (#34) to the fourth-highest in November 2022 (#38), illustrates their overall slide in world football. It will be the first World Cup for manager Graham Arnold who has been in charge for four years, but he has plenty of experience through his time as an assistant during the 2006 and 2010 editions.
Arnold survived some intense calls for his sacking in April following a dreadful end to their Asian qualification phase (W1, D3, L2), but vindicated the FA’s faith in him by securing tight playoff victories against the UAE (2-1) and Peru (penalties after 0-0), most famously making the genius move of subbing on ‘penalty specialist’ goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne for the successful shootout against the latter.
Players to watch: France’s Kylian Mbappé could cement his status as a potential all-time great at just 23 by getting his hands on a second World Cup, and is primed to contribute after being involved in 11 goals (G7, A4) during his last six games for club-side PSG. Since returning home, Jason Cummings has been a revelation, adding his maiden international goal against New Zealand in Australia’s last match to nine goalscoring appearances for his club Central Coast Mariners since March.
Hot streak: Australia have not conceded 3+ goals against any opposition in their last 39 matches dating back to March 2018.
World Cup trivia: France produced the worst title defence in World Cup history when failing to score a single goal during the 2002 edition (D1, L2).
