Quarter-finals preview: Uruguay vs. France

The important aspect, that we learned from both Uruguay and France’s respective round of 16 matches, is that both the team have attackers of the highest quality. Scoring quality goals against Portugal and Argentina is a big achievement. Both will be favorites to reach the semi-finals, so it will not be easy to predict the final outcome of the match. Defeating big teams in the previous rounds will bring their confidence to a much higher level. Also the fact that most of the players of both Uruguay and France play in the biggest leagues in the world, their experience will be a much-needed boost.

The game of the attackers

The likes of Luiz Suarez, Edinson Cavani, Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba, etc. can light up the match at any moment. While their technical ability, to create goal scoring chances or even scoring one themselves are good, they also have a better scoring rate than most players around. Man of the match in his previous game, Kylian Mbappe is one of the best young players in the world. His talent, along with his confidence in playing in big matches, is very good as compared to most players of his age. Edinson Cavani and Luiz Suarez are arguably the best striking partners in this World Cup. It is a treat to watch them together, whether they are scoring goals or creating chances for each other. The huge amount of hard work they do for their team is what makes both of them hungry to score goals, despite being in their early thirties.

Follow Uruguay vs France Live Football Scores here.

Who will have the last laugh?

What can we expect from the game?

People are talking about how much of a game of Uruguay’s defence vs. France’s attack it will be. Moreover, there is possibly much more in this match than that. We cannot forget the fact that Diego Godin and Jose Gimenez have the best defence record in this World Cup, and their experience of playing together for Atletico Madrid gives them an upper hand in this fixture. Now all the pre-match talk will be about how Didier Deschamps uses his exciting attackers to break the Uruguayan defence. Although, we can expect a high scoring match too. While both the teams will try to avoid the prospect of a penalty shoot-out, there is a huge capability in both the teams’ goalkeepers, to help their respective teams win the match.

Conclusion

Both Uruguay and France are deserving of their quarter-final appearance in this world cup. And both will be desperate to reach the semi-finals, but only one can. This has been a World Cup of huge upsets, and they are now huge favourites to go all the way and reach the final. And from a fans' perspective, I would not want any one to lose.