France will welcome Kazakhstan to Paris this Saturday night as the defending world champions look to secure a place at Qatar 2022 to defend their title in what has been a bit of a troubling qualification campaign for them.
Didier Deschamps' men still sit top of the table in Group D and it is unlikely we will see them miss out on a place at Qatar 2022 despite being ahead of Ukraine in second by just three points. The French do have a game in hand over the second-placed side, giving them a little bit more leeway.
Pass🔄Move↔️Score⚽️⚽️⚽️Les Bleus in training 🟡🆚🟠 #FiersdetreBleus pic.twitter.com/lAtvjh6tLW— French Team ⭐⭐ (@FrenchTeam) November 10, 2021
Pass🔄Move↔️Score⚽️⚽️⚽️Les Bleus in training 🟡🆚🟠 #FiersdetreBleus pic.twitter.com/lAtvjh6tLW
As mentioned, however, it’s been far from convincing for the world champions, and in truth, ever since lifting the World Cup in 2018, it’s been quite an alarming period for France as they also excited Euro 2020 far sooner than expected.
It was Switzerland who knocked the World Cup winners out in the round of 16 following an excellent comeback victory to eventually knock them out on penalties to advance.
Combine this with the fact they also have drawn three times from six games in the World Cup qualifiers, and France's form doesn’t look anywhere near as good as it should.
Nevertheless, they are still unbeaten and should ease past Kazakhstan here. Quite alarmingly too, however, is also the fact they’ve managed just eight goals in six games against the likes of Finland, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kazakhstan.
While this is not a torrid record, the likes of Belgium have netted 21 times, England 24, Spain 14, and even countries like Russia, Croatia, and North Macedonia all have 19+ goals.
Kazakhstan, on the other hand, have been the whipping boys in this group and they enter this clash with France having not won a game, lost four and drawn three, conceding an alarming 12 goals along the way in only seven games.
They did also lose 2-0 to France a few gameweeks prior to Euro 2020,where Ousmane Dembele and Serhiy Malyi managed to score for the world champions. A similar outcome is expected here from a much inferior Kazakhstan team.
Despite the below-par form from France and the lack of goals from their superstar names, their squad is still littered with exceptional talent and they should, in truth, ease past Kazakhstan.
Forebet is predicting they will win here but in a game that sees under 2.5 goals, given their lack of effort on opposition goals.