On Friday at 10am Eastern in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia the World Cup Quarter-finals get underway with a great matchup between Group A winners Uruguay and Group C winner France. Uruguay is unbeaten against France in World Cup matches, having won a 1966 game 2-1 and drawing 0-0 in matches in 2002 and 2010. Further, Uruguay is 3-4-1 in their last eight matchups vs France. On the other hand, France are unbeaten in their last nine World Cup matchups vs South American teams (5-4-0) and more importantly, our World Cup Betting odds show France as a favorite.
Uruguay
Four wins and three clean sheets; that is what got Uruguay to this point in the tournament. While their first three wins were against much weaker sides in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Russia, Uruguay proved itself to be worthy of the Quarter-finals by beating Euro 2016 champions Portugal in convincing fashion on Saturday. Edinson Cavani scored both goals in that game and is starting to make his case for the Golden Boot. Currently he is tied for third place in goals at the World Cup with 3. The bad news for Cavani and Uruguay is that he suffered a calf injury in the Portugal game and his status is in doubt for Friday's Quarter-final against France. It is still unclear how bad the injury is, but Cavani is training apart from the team and in rehabilitation going into Friday's game.
France
During the group stage, France was widely criticized for underperforming versus inferior sides such as Australia and Peru. Although they went undefeated and won their group, there were many questions going into their round of 16 game versus Argentina. In the first half of that game, France again raised doubts when they were down 2-1 after the first 45 minutes of play. However, things turned around in the second half, when 19-year-old Kylian Mbappé scored two goals and jump-stared the French offense to a 4-3 comeback victory. After witnessing how easily France was able to take Argentina down in the second half, there is little doubt that this team is for real and a legitimate contender for a World Cup title. If they bring that same energy and cohesion to Friday's game against Uruguay, they will be a hard team to beat.
Match Overview
Part of what makes this matchup interesting is the clash of two major French scoring threats in Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann against a Uruguay defense that has only let up one goal so far in four games - one of those games being against Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal. To counter, Uruguay have two very dangerous scoring threats of their own in Cavani and Luis Suarez. For matchup value alone, this promises to be one of the best games at the World Cup so far, with two talented, evenly matched teams putting everything on the line for their countries. France holds the advantage in odds due to their depth and potential, but where Uruguay comes up short in personnel, they make up for it with solidarity and team unity. The core of this group has played together for nearly 10 years under head coach Oscar Tavarez, and their unity on the field is apparent.
