Dugout Discussion – France vs Romania

Euro 2016 gets underway this evening as France entertain Romania in Paris. Favourites to lift the trophy on home turf, Didier Deschamps’ side have been in fine scoring form of late – they’ve won all of their last four friendlies and found the net at least three times on each occasion.

Delving into the data, the underlying numbers bode well for the hosts – Les Bleus have fired 70 attempts on goal over their last four matches, a tally bettered only by Belgium amongst the 24 participants.

Deschamps’ thriving attack sit second for goals (13) and top for big chances (13), highlighting just why the likes of Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann, Dimitri Payet and Olivier Giroud are so highly fancied Fantasy assets against a defence that’s shipped six goals in their last three.

Romania, though, have also fared well in the final third and will be buoyed by the fact that France have conceded twice in four of their previous five friendlies.

Anghel Iorsanescu’s men are on a fine run that’s harvested just a single loss in 20 and they’ve netted eight times in the last couple of matches. Indeed, Romania sit third amongst the qualifiers for attempts on goal (67) over the previous four, though only 29 have arrived from inside the box.

With three goals to his name over the previous four, Nicolas Stanciu is likely to carry the visitors’ main chance of upsetting the odds tonight.