France and Australia were in fine form in their latest World Cup friendlies while Egypt struggled in the absence of Mohamed Salah.
There was a discouraging result for South Korea while Tunisia demonstrated how hard they could make England work in their tournament opener.
We’ve got all the details of Friday’s World Cup friendlies from a Fantasy perspective.
FRANCE 3-1 ITALY
Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele strengthened their cases for inclusion in World Cup Fantasy teams on Friday night as they scored in France’s win over Italy.
Manager Didier Deschamps named a strong starting XI with his strength in depth showcased by the fact that Blaise Matuidi, Olivier Giroud and Thomas Lemar only featured from the bench.
Defender Samuel Umtiti netted the opener after Kylian Mbappe’s left-footed volley was well-saved by Salvatore Sirigu. The Barcelona centre-back tapped in the rebound.
N’Golo Kante nearly scored his second goal for France in the first half after a rasping effort from range cannoned off the post.
When Lucas Hernandez was fouled in the box, Griezmann converted the resulting penalty kick to make it 2-0.
After a fine performance, Dembele got his deserved goal in the second half with a chip over Sirigu.
However, while many of his team-mates put on impressive displays, Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba failed to have much of an impact on the match.
It was his return to the starting line-up after being benched for two of the last three international friendlies, but he received jeers from the home crowd on Friday night.
France XI (4-3-3): Lloris; Pavard, Rami, Umtiti, Gomez (Mendy 62’); Tolisso (Matuidi 77’), Kante, Pogba (N’Zonzi 86’); Mbappe (Thauvin 83’), Griezmann (Giroud 77’), Dembele (Lemar 71’).
EGYPT 0-0 COLOMBIA
Egypt showed their dependence on the injured Mohamed Salah as they failed to muster much in attack in a 0-0 draw with Colombia.
The South Americans enjoyed the lion’s share of chances in the match with James Rodriguez and Radamel Falcao going close, but they could not capitalise on their pressure.
Both sides demonstrated they will need to be more clinical when they begin their World Cup campaigns.
Hector Cuper’s Egypt seemed keen to play long through balls over Colombia’s defence but without Salah they lacked the pace the chase them down.
Despite keeping a clean sheet, goalkeeper Mohamed El-Shennawy (back-up to Essam El-Hedary), demonstrated some odd decision making, nearly costing his team a goal twice. Meanwhile, Ahmed Hegazi was hugely impressive at centre-back.
Ramadan Sobhi had the best chance for Egypt after a poor clearance from Spurs defender Davinson Sanchez but he could only fire straight at David Ospina.
Colombia, through Rodriguez and Brighton’s Jose Izquierdo, had two excellent chances to win late on but were both denied by El-Hedary, who came on a half-time.
EGYPT XI (4-2-3-1): El-Shenawy (El-Hedary 45’); Fathi, Hegazi, Sami, Abdel-Shadfy; Tarek Hamed, Morsy (Hussein 68’); Sobhi (Warda 66’), El-Said (Razek Fadlalla 80’), Trezeguet (El Mohamedy 57’); Mohsen (Abdel-Moneim Soliman 63’).
COLOMBIA XI (4-2-3-1): Ospina; Arias, Yerry Mina (Murillo 45’), Davinson Sanchez, Fabra (Mojica 45’); Carlos Sanchez, Uribe (Quintero 63’); Cuadrado (Izquierdo 45’), James Rodriguez, Muriel (Borja 81’); Falcao (Bacca 66’).
AUSTRALIA 4-0 CZECH REPUBLIC
Our chosen World Cup Fantasy ‘Key Target’ from Australia Mathew Leckie was the star man as they romped to a 4-0 victory over Czech Republic.
The Hertha Berlin right-winger scored twice to add to his three goals and five assists in qualifying. Meanwhile Andrew Nabbout also found the net for the Socceroos.
Robbie Kruse provided the assist for Leckie’s opener before Huddersfield Town midfielder Aaron Mooy put one up for his second.
Jakub Jugas’ own-goal made it 4-0 in the second half after a Milos Degenek cross.
Captain and penalty-taker Mile Jedinak was benched for the encounter after his role in the Championship play-off final defeat with Aston Villa last weekend. Tomi Juric and Tim Cahill were also left on the bench.
The Socceroos have now eight times across their four most recent friendlies and demonstrated a cutting edge streak which they will have to rely on if they are to beat the odds and emerge from Group C as underdogs.
AUSTRALIA XI (4-4-1-1): Ryan; Behich, Milligan, Sainsbury, Risdon (Degenek 76’); Kruse (Petratos 73’), Luongo, Mooy, Leckie (Arzani 84’); Rogic (Irvine 66’), Nabbout (MacLaren 61’).
SOUTH KOREA 1-3 BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
South Korea have plenty of work to do before their World Cup opener against Sweden following a 3-1 defeat to Bosnia & Herzegovina on Friday night.
Edin Visca scored a hat-trick for the visitors, who will be encouraged in victory despite not qualifying for this summer’s finals.
The winger broke the deadlock in the 28th minute but Korea’s Jae-Sung Lee immediately replied, with Hee-Chan Hwang providing the assist.
Spurs’ Heung-min Son played the full 90 minutes but was largely ineffective and Swansea City’s Sung-Yeung Ki played at centre-back.
SOUTH KOREA XI (3-4-1-2): S Kim; Oh (Kwon 46’), Ki (S-W Kim 87’), Yun (Jung 75’); M Kim, Jung, Koo (Ju 75’), Y Lee; J Lee (Moon 80’); Son, Hwang (S-W Lee 80’).
TUNISIA 2-2 TURKEY
Tunisia were minutes away from their third friendly victory of 2018 before Turkey scored a late equaliser. But England’s first Group G opponents remain unbeaten in nine matches.
Everton’s Cenk Tosun opened the scoring in the 54th minute with a penalty kick but Anice Badri put Tunisia back on terms with a wonderful strike.
Tosun was sent off on the hour-mark after for arguing with supporters behind the dugout. Tunisia capitalised on the man advantage with 10 minutes left of the match as Ferjani Sassi put his side in front.
Caglar Soyuncu popped up in stoppage time to end the game 2-2.
TUNISIA XI (4-3-3): Hassen; Maaloul, Meriah, S Ben Yousseff, Bronn (Nagguez 76’); Sassi, Skhiri (Srarfi 70’), Khaoui (Ben Amor 53’); Sliti, F Ben Yousseff (Khalifa 75’), Badri.
World Cup previews by team
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5 years, 11 months ago
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This quite neatly sums up my reservations with this France squad. Deschamps can never seem to pick the right squad at the right time, and if he starts Giroud through this World Cup I think this will be proven. They have a phenomenal squad but he is an average manager at best who makes more mistakes than most others. He consistently fails to get Pogba to play well, when that should be one of his priorities and his defence has consistent lapses that lead to them giving away poor goals. I think they will get out of the group, but only having been beaten by one of Peru or Denmark. They've lacked a clear or consistent goalscorer since the Euros, as shown by their top goalscorers in qualifying being Giroud and Griezmann with 4 apiece - if they start Dembele, Mbappe and Griezmann against Australia this gives them their best chance of success but I still don't see any of these players finishing the tournament with more than 2 goals each; it's just not how Deschamps gets them to play. Griezmann certainly won't live up to the 10m+ pricetag he's given in the Mcdonald's game and I will be steering clear.