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Steffen Schmidt - March 22, 2021
France vs Ukraine
World Cup Qualifications
Date: Wednesday, 24 March 2021
Kick-Off at 19.45 UK
Venue: Stade de France, Saint-Denis.
The top two favourites in Group D will begin their World Cup qualifying campaign on Wednesday evening when France host Ukraine in Saint-Denis.
The hosts should enter the match in much higher spirits after a fabulous run in the last year’s UEFA Nations League. Les Bleus topped a very tough group with Portugal, Croatia, and Sweden with an impressive record of five wins and a draw in six games along the way.
Their rivals have had a completely opposite campaign in their respective Nations League group. The team led by Andriy Shevchenko were eliminated from the top tier of the competition after ending the group with Spain, Germany, and Switzerland at the bottom of the standings.
The tough 3-0 defeat in the very last fixture of Swiss soil was the most painful one. In general, Ukraine lost six of their last seven outings (including a friendly against Poland) and they shipped three goals in each of the last two games against Germany and Switzerland.
France have been the dominant force in the history of this match-up. Les Bleus won six, drew three, and lost only one of ten meetings with the Ukrainians.
Les Bleus bagged as many as seven goals when they last met Ukraine, in a friendly played in early-October last year (a 7-1 win).
France have an impressive 21-6 goal difference against Ukraine.
Didier Deschamps will likely be without his main star Kylian Mbappe who received a knock in the weekend’s win for PSG against Lyon.
Nevertheless, the French manager still has an amazing firepower on display in the final third as Olivier Girous, Antoine Griezmann, and Ousmane Dembele are all set to feature.
Ukraine have been poor defensively in their latest fixtures and we can hardly see them keeping mighty France at bay on Wednesday.
We predict three or more goals from France here. Olivier Giroud has always been a prolific scorer in the national team (44 goals so far) and he is well worth backing to score anytime at the odds of 2.10.
We are not impressed at all by this Ukrainian team when it comes to their attacking potential. The main bet will thus be France to win to nil at the 1.90 odds.
