France Stats & Form
The defending champion France goes to Qatar with one goal and one goal only, and that is to defend the title won in Russia in 2018. They definitely have the personnel to do that as Kylian Mbappe is even a better player than he was in 2018 when he led the nation to the throne.
Despite being the defending champions, France needed to go through the qualification to book their ticket for Qatar. They had no issues with that, finishing on top of Group D with 18 points, 6 more than Ukraine.
France had a run of 7 consecutive wins but has failed to win in the last 4 games in the Nations League losing to Croatia and Denmark.
France News
France has won two World Cups, the first one in 1998 when they hosted the tournament and the second one in Russia in 2018.
Australia Stats & Form
Australia has become a regular participant at the World Cups and an opponent that can bring trouble to any team.
Australia finished on top of Group B in the first stage of the Asian qualifications for the World Cup with a perfect record of 8 wins in 8 matches and a goal differential of 28-2.
In the second stage, they finished third in group B behind Saudi Arabia and Japan and had to go to the Playoffs in order to qualify for Qatar. In the Playoffs, Australia defeated the United Arab Emirates by 2-1.
Australia has only 4 wins in the last 10 games but has won the last three games.
Goalkeeper Matthew Ryan is the most experienced player on the team alongside Mathew Leckie.
Australia News
This will be the fifth consecutive World Cup for Australia and sixth in total. They had their top result in 2006 in Germany where they advanced to the knockout phase and lost in the round of 16. In 2018 in Russia, Australia was eliminated in the group phase failing to win a single game.
France vs. Australia Head-to-Head Stats
These two teams met at the last World Cup in Russia where the Blues won 2-1 in the group stage. That was France’s second win in four games against Australia with the Socceroos winning one and one draw.
France vs. Australia Betting Odds
France is a huge favorite in the game against Australia with -476 odds in their favor while Australia is at 1250. The odds for a draw are set at 535.
The total goals margin is set at 2.5 with -148 for over and 119 for under.
Betting Tip
The defending champion France will go after another trophy after winning the last World Cup in Russia. They are starting this competition with a match against Australia which is far beyond their level but definitely not a team that can be underestimated. Kylian Mbappé is probably the best young player in the world who had a huge impact on France winning the trophy in the last World Cup and will be their key player once again. The PSG striker is simply unstoppable and he will prove that once again in the opener against Australia. The defending champions will not push hard from the very start of the game but their quality will definitely prevail and give them three points at the start of the tournament.
