France 3 Sweden 0
This is getting silly now. I think we’ve got to the point where this might be the scariest international team we’ve seen for some time, Sweden actually didn’t start the game too badly hitting the ball long to Gyokeres who was holding it up well to get his side up the pitch. France were always going to dominate the ball and gave Sweden a mighty scare twenty minutes in as Mbappe scored but was just offside as the pass was played through, as the half wore on France were getting better and better with Mbappe and Olise hitting the post whilst Dembele had a shot just go wide. Then just before half-time a France corner was played short to Dembele who played Mbappe through who then jinxed past Gyokeres and fired a shot past Zetterstrom to give Les Bleus the lead heading into the break, the second half was pure cinema from a France perspective with flicks and tricks that you couldn’t help but applaud to. It didn’t take long for them to double their lead as Olise picked up the ball in some space and played a ridiculous pass through Lagerbielke’s legs to Barcola who finished brilliantly to put France 2-0 up in the 53rd minute, the best goal was yet to come twenty minutes later as Mbappe played a one-two with Olise and curled a Thierry Henry-esque shot past Zetterstrom to finish the game. Another statement performance from the favourites, who’s gonna stop them?
There’s no one stopping this French team. Even though they started relatively slow in the first half you just know that at some point somethings going to click in the attack and there’s just nothing you can do about it, there was times in the second half when they were just toying with Sweden and if it wasn’t for Zetterstrom France could have easily scored 4 or 5. The attack will of course get all the headlines but you could make the argument that they also have one of the best defences in the tournament, Upamecano and Saliba gave that Sweden attack that’s worth £250 million absolutely nothing all game so even if you can keep the attack somewhat quiet you still have to try and score. You could argue that the midfield is the weakest throughout the team but Rabiot is underrated in this French team alongside Tchouameni who’s just an all-round brilliant midfielder that can win the ball back so quickly, that’s all without even talking about their bench options who would probably get in just about every other team in this World Cup like Cherki, Doue, Kone etc. Good luck to Paraguay in the next round up against this France team, they’ll need it.
An unlucky draw for Sweden in the end. It was always going to be an uphill task for this Swedish side to overcome the favourites for the entire tournament but they did have a few chances especially in the first half that on another day could have made the game more competitive, they had a game plan that was working in the first half through Gyokeres holding the ball up well but once Saliba and Upamecano started to get the better of him Sweden couldn’t get out of their own half and really stood no chance up against the French attack. If there is something to be critical about for Sweden at this World Cup it’s the fact that Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres both only scored one goal each at the tournament which was in the first game against Tunisia, three games without a goal for both of them is disappointing when Sweden rely on them so heavily. Overall I think the Round of 32 is about par for this Sweden team, what did you think about Sweden at this World Cup?
Can I talk about the French attack again? This has been a feature of my France analysis so far but I can’t help but just continue to wax lyrical about just how good France are going forward, you can say want you want about Mbappe at club level but when it comes to the World Cup there are very few throughout history now that can chat to him when it comes to performances in this tournament. He’s now one behind Messi in the all-time scoring record but you’d imagine that’ll be more after Argentina take on Cape Verde in a few days, Olise had a bit of an off day against Norway but he was right back at it today and almost scored the goal of the tournament with a bicycle kick in the first half that hit the post. His partnership with Mbappe in this World Cup so far has you wondering just how far Florentino Perez would go to bring him to Madrid? On the wings you have Dembele and Barcola with the Balon D’Or winner having a relatively quiet game today whilst Barcola was electric on that left-wing running rings around Daniel Svensson who just couldn’t keep up with the PSG man’s pace, they are just an absolute joy to watch and makes you wonder where they rank in the all-time attacks in World Cup history? They have to be up there.
Who will France be taking on in the next round? Up next for Les Bleus will be Paraguay in the Round of 16 after the South American side stunned Germany on penalties yesterday, I said in the review after that game that I actually think Paraguay will make it tougher for France than Germany would have and I still stand by that statement, even Paraguay won’t give the French attackers as much space as they had today but you’d still imagine they’ll get through at some point. That game takes place on Saturday and I’ll have it covered right here, don’t miss another chance to watch this attack in the World Cup.