France had little difficulty in reaching the knockout stages but did lose a game to Tunisia with a second string squad. AP
France vs Poland preview: France, the reigning World Cup champions, have been warned by coach Didier Deschamps not to underestimate Poland and star Robert Lewandowski in the knockout round on Sunday.
FIFA World Cup: Fixtures | Results | Points Table | Squads | Records
Les Blues breezed through the group stage and clinched a spot in the round of 16 with a game to spare, which allowed Deschamps to rest his stars in France’s meaningless final first round game.
Nine substitutes started in the 1-0 loss to Tunisia, and Adrien Rabiot, Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Antonie Griezmann all came off the bench late in the game.
France, with fresh legs, are the overwhelming favorite to beat Poland and are the first defending World Cup champion to reach the round of 16 since Brazil in 2006. France are 5-0 in the first knockout round since the stage was introduced to the World Cup in 1986.
Four years earlier, Poland tied its World Cup-best third-place finish with a 3-2 victory over … France. But Poland, which is in the knockout round for the first time in 36 years, has not beaten France since a win in a friendly 51 days after that victory.
Poland has three losses and four draws in the seven meetings since, the last match in 2011.
(With inputs from AP)
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsBit.us is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
