France face a Belgium side who have been in cruise control over the past two years. With a stunning 2-1 win over five-time world champions Brazil in the quarter-finals, the Red Devils arrived.

While Roberto Martinez’s side have been in cruise control, Didier Deschamps’s side have not been too shabby either. The hurt of losing the final of the European Championships on home soil might have hurt Les Blues.

The young French team faced stern tests against Argentina and Uruguay, but passed it with flying colours. During the World Cup qualifiers, the French lost just one game. There, again, they were effective despite not running riot a la Belgium. In the tables and the results below, one can see that the 1998 champions have distributed goalscoring duties effectively but have far inferior goals scored (43) to their tally compared to Belgium.

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It doesn’t come as a surprise that Antoine Griezmann is leading the goal-scoring charts. Olivier Giroud, despite not being a regular starter stands toe-to-toe with the Atletico Madrid forward.

France (Since Euro 2016)

2018 World Cup  World Cup Qualifiers Friendlies 
Wins                 5                    7                    6
Losses                 0                    1                    1
Draws                 1                    2                    1
Goals Scored                 9                     18                     23
Goals Conceded                 4                    6                    10
Clean Sheets                 3                    5                     2
Average Goals Scored                        1.8                            1.8                    3.8
Average Goals Conceded                0.8                    0.6                    1.6

World Cup

July 6 at Nizhny Novgorod:

Uruguay 0-2 France (Raphael Varane, Antoine Griezmann)

June 26 at Kazan

Argentina 3-4 France (Kylian Mbappe x 2, Antoine Griezmann, Benjamin Pavard)

June 26 at Moscow

France 0-0 Denmark

June 21 at Ekaterinberg

France 1-0 Peru (Kylian Mbappe)

June 16 at Kazan
France 2-1 Australia (Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba)

Friendlies

France 1-1 USA (Kylian Mbappe)

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June 1, 2018

France 3-1 Italy (Samuel Umtiti, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele)

March 28, 2018

France 2-0 Ireland (Olivier Giroud, Nabil Fekir)

March 27, 2018

Russia 1-3 France (Kylian Mbappe x 2, Paul Pogba)

March 23, 2017

France 2-3 Colombia (Olvier Giroud, Thomas Lemar)

October 14, 2017

Germany 2-2 France (Alexandre Lacazette)

October 13, 2017

France 2-0 Wales (Antoine Griezmann, Olivier Giroud)

June 13, 2017

France 3 (Samuel Umtiti, Djibril Sidibe, Ousmane Dembele) England 2

June 2, 2017

France 5-0 Paraguay (Olivier Giroud x 3, Antoine Griezmann, Moussa Sissoko)

Top scorers for France (Since Euro 2016)

Player  Goals
Antoine Griezmann 10
Olivier Giroud  10
Kylian Mbappe  7
Paul Pogba  4

World Cup qualifiers

September 7, 2016

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Belarus 0-0 France

October 8, 2016

France 4-1 Bulgaria (Kevin Gameiro x 2, Dimitri Payet, Antoine Griezmann)

October 11, 2016

Netherlands 0-1 France (Paul Pogba)

November 11, 2016

France 2-1 Sweden (Paul Pogba, Dimitri Payet)

March 26, 2017

Luxembourg 1-3 France (Olivier Giroud 2, Antoine Griezmann)

June 9, 2017

Sweden 2-1 France (Olivier Giroud)

August 31, 2017

France 4-0 Netherlands (Thomas Lemar x 2, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe)

September 4, 2017

France 0-0 Luxembourg

October 8, 2017

Bulgaria 0-1 France (Blaise Matuidi)

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October 10, 2017

France 2-1 Belarus (Antoine Griezmann, Olivier Giroud)