France are looking to secure qualification from FIFA World Cup Group C when they meet Peru at Central Stadium in Yekaterinburg on Thursday. The two teams have never met before in an international match as Peru have not qualified for the World Cup final tournament since 1982. However, Peru did reach the quarter-finals at the World Cup in 1970 and lost 4-2 to eventual champions Brazil. France have reached the quarter-finals at the 2014 tournament in Brazil and lost 1-0 to eventual trophy winners Germany.
France produced a rather unconvincing performance in their opening match against Australia last week but somehow they managed to get all three points with a lucky 2-1 victory. Antoine Griezmann scored the first goal from a penalty kick while the winning goal was in fact an own-goal on 81 minutes. Head coach Didier Deschamps might make some changes for the match against Peru: Djibril Sidibe could return from injury to replace Benjamin Pavard at right-back, while Blaise Matuidi and Olivier Giroud could be given a place in the starting eleven after substitute appearances against Australia.
Peru were quite unlucky to leave their opening match empty-handed, they lost 1-0 to Denmark despite having played pretty well throughout the match. Christian Cueva missed a penalty kick for the Peruvians in the first half of the match and then they were unable to find the back of the net after Yussuf Poulsen opened the scoring for Denmark. Head coach Ricardo Gareca will most likely choose to field veteran captain Paolo Guerrero from the start against France after his side squandered various great chances in the first match.
Probable line-ups:
France: Lloris - Pavard, Varane, Umtiti, Hernandez - Kante, Pogba - Mbappe, Griezmann, Matuidi - Giroud
Peru: Gallese - Advincula, Rodriguez, Ramos, Trauco - Yotun, Tapia - Carrillo, Cueva, Farfan - Guerrero
My prediction: 1-1 draw, Peru looked a lot better than France in the opening match, despite the result.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
France win - 1.55
Draw - 4.20
Peru win - 7.00
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Comments (1)
sharpe
07/03/18, 04:07:19 PM
The French have done their job in the group stage without too much glamour, a lucky win against Australia another single goal in this against Peru but in the end...
The French have done their job in the group stage without too much glamour, a lucky win against Australia another single goal in this against Peru but in the end they make it to the knock out stage and their performance could of been only improved after that. Peru shown some character and in fact won their last game against Australia so overall a good performance for them.
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