World Cup 2018: 3 reasons why France beat Uruguay 2-0

#1 France capitalised on set-pieces

Football: Uruguay vs France at World Cup — Varane scores from a Griezmann set-piece

There's not much to be said here. With the likes of Pogba, Giroud, Varane, Umtiti available to attack set-pieces, France were always likely to be lethal from set-plays. When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

It was pretty stuffy in the middle till France won a freekick on their right side. Griezmann checked his run before delivering the ball, allowing Raphael Varane to emerge on his near side unmarked and the latter met the ball right before Stuani could head it clear and gave France the lead.

Uruguay have Diego Godin and Jimenez and winning aerial duels against the duo is no mean feat. On your worst days, you gotta stick to your strengths and France capitalised on one of the golden opportunities that came their way while Uruguay simply didn't.

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 Amit Mishra