France and Australia.. to meet for revenge

 France and Australia.. to meet for revenge. 

French national team-World Cup in Qatar

 The French national team begins the campaign to defend its title, without the best player in the world, its striker Karim Benzema, who is absent from injury, against Australia.  In the World Cup in Russia 2018. At that time, the video assistant referee, in the first use of this new technology in the World Cup finals, awarded a penalty kick in favor of France, which Antoine Griezmann successfully translated, in a difficult 1-2 victory.

The Qatar World Cup is different from its predecessor in that France suffered a severe morale setback even before the competitions began when the finest player in the world, striker Karim Benzema, 34, withdrew from the team due to a thigh injury, adding to a string of absences that drained the "blue."

The 1998 and 2018 winners, midfielders Paul Pogba and Ngolo Kante, as well as goalkeeper Mike Mignan, central defense Prisnel Kempebe, and attacker Christopher Nkunku, accepted and wished them farewell as the string of injuries continued. However, Benzema's absence served to revive the Kylian Mbappe and Olivier Giroud team, which supported Griezmann as France won its second championship four years ago. And even if Didier Deschamps' team decided to go on the offensive after adding Ousmane Dembele, the establishment is forced to bring back memories of glorious Moscow.

stars

 On the other hand, Australia needed to go through the international supplement to catch up with the teams that qualified for Qatar, and it is preparing for its first match with a squad without heavy-caliber stars, but with “an impeccable state of mind”, and based on the ideas of coach Graham Arnold, former assistant to the Dutchman Guus Hiddink, during  The era of his assumption of technical duties in “Socors” in 2006.

Australia, which ranks 36th in the world rankings, is participating in the World Cup finals for the sixth time in its history, 16 years after it reached the final price round in the World Cup Germany, in its best record in the World Cups. It also hopes to achieve its first victory in the finals since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa (5 defeats to a draw).

road

 The road to Qatar was not strewn with roses for Australia, which found itself behind Japan and Saudi Arabia in the Asian qualifiers, and beat the UAE 2-1 in the continental play-off, then beat Peru in the international play-off with a penalty shootout 4-5, after a goalless tie in the original and extra time.

 Coach Arnold's style and plans were subjected to a wave of criticism, to save his head from the guillotine of dismissal, after he missed direct qualification to Qatar.

2006

 Graham Arnold, coach of the Australian national football team, is looking forward to repeating the achievement of Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, who led the Australian national team to reach the round of 16 in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, before losing to Italy, and said: This version of the World Cup is unique, and qualification was a wonderful achievement,  But that is not enough for me, because I want more.

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                 #Benzima