World Cup 2018: 3 Reasons why France beat Argentina 4-3

#2 France bossed the midfield realms

France v Argentina: Round of 16 - 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia — The Pogba that Manchester United broke the bank for

Once the initial lethargy wore off and the trio of Matuidi, Kante and Pogba were fully charged, Argentina had a tough time getting the ball to the final third. In fact, Pogba was on song from the get-go and the psychic reboot of this World Cup finally seems to be bringing the best out of him.

Pogba kept splitting Argentina's backline with his incisive passing and often released his attackers past their markers with that characteristic flair of his.

He was also making marauding runs through the centre, one of which ended up in Giroud being played in on the left side of the box with an eye-catching outside of the boot pass. The striker missed but the quality in France's midfield shone right through.

Matuidi stayed close to Messi and kept him as silent as he could and Kante's sweeping powers enabled Pogba's enterprise.

10 - Paul Pogba 🇫🇷 has made 10 recoveries v Argentina today, twice more than any other France player. Rebellion. #FRAARG #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/TeQncmxGJz
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) June 30, 2018

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About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Arvind Sriram