Preview & Prediction: France Vs Mexico

France Vs Mexico:

France will play crucial game against Mexico in the second round of group games where losing team almost exits from world cup. In the first round, Mexico played well against South Africans and created lot of chances whereas France struggled against tough Uruguay defence and failed to create goal scoring chances and escaped with a draw. Uruguay topped group A with 4 points from 2 games and also enjoying 3-goal difference.

Match timing: June 17, 11:55 PM

Venue: Peter Mokaba stadium, Polokwane 

Key players:

France: Frank Ribery, Florent Malouda, Patrice Evra and Hugo Lloris. 

Mexico: Giovani Dos Santos, Franco, Carlos Vela, Rafael Marquez and Andres Guardado. I am strugging to understand coach’s strategy of not using Javier Hernandez even as a substitute.

Squad analysis:

France: Despite having world class players, they are struggling due to weak coach. France is still in contention for last 16 stage because of hopes on individual brilliance. When a team has players like Frank Ribery and Patrice Evra, you should never underestimate them. But, they lost to China and drew with Tunisia and Uruguay in their last 3 games. Yoann Gourcuff was almost non-existant against Uruguay.

Mexico: Mexico is looking strong in all departments. In attack, they can match any team and their young forwards especially play well against aged defenders. Andres Guardado is one of the best midfielders in 2010 world cup (his excelent pass to Rafael Marquez helped Mexico to level against South Africa). Rafael Marquez led defence is looking compact at back.

Final analysis: In group A, there is a tough contest for top 2 slots. So, losing a game means almost exiting from world cup. S

World Cup game Prediction: France 1 - Mexico 2