Bet on France to advance when England, France meet in World Cup quarterfinal

It just doesn’t get much bigger than this.

England vs. France in a World Cup knockout match. The Three Lions looking to continue their march toward their first major trophy since 1966, Les Bleus trying to become the first country since Brazil in 1962 to repeat as champions.

Adding to the intrigue is the fact that the betting market is having an incredibly difficult time separating these two sides. France is a slight -122 favorite to advance, while England is sitting as an even-money underdog on Saturday afternoon.

A lot of the on-field focus for this game will be on the matchup between Kylian Mbappe and the England defense. More specifically, Kyle Walker. Mbappe, who is the odds-on favorite to win the Golden Boot, has been in terrific form in Qatar, using his pace and skill to overwhelm every defense he’s come up against.

Walker is known for his pace as well and England is the best defense Mbappe will see to date in the tournament, but it’s hard to imagine the talismanic Frenchman not having a major impact.

But while everyone is focusing on how England will deal with Mbappe, the key battle seems to be in the midfield. Jude Bellingham has been a revelation in the middle of the pitch for England and has worked perfectly with Declan Rice, but the Three Lions have faced very little resistance in that area of the game so far. In fact, you could argue that the only solid midfield they’ve come up against was the United States and the Yanks completely neutralized Bellingham and Rice en route to a nil-nil draw.

» READ MORE: World Cup 2022 Golden Boot Odds: Mbappe Odds Drop ahead of England clash

France’s midfield isn’t getting much hype because everyone is talking about Mbappe, but Antoine Griezmann, Aurelien Tchouameni and Adrien Rabiot have been brilliant thus far and should be able to put up a similar fight that the Americans did. If you can disrupt the English midfield, it makes getting their incredible attacking players into the game very difficult, which turns them into a beatable opponent.

Both of these defenses still have questions to answer. England will face their stiffest test yet and will have to figure out how to keep Mbappe from dominating the game, while France have looked vulnerable against much lesser attacks so far in this tournament.

Those defensive question marks should lead to a more open game than most people are expecting. Most of the time when we get to an elimination match that pits two evenly-matched soccer powerhouses against one another, the narrative becomes that it will be a tight, rigid contest that will be low on scoring. But both of these teams have thrilling attacks and vulnerable defenses, which should open things up more than most pundits expect.

That type of match, one that goes more back and forth than side to side, would favor France, a team that can attack with pace through Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele, over the more measured approach from England.

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