A supremely confident France side will fancy their chances of getting the three points that will take them to the next round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup as they square off against Iraq, who know that a defeat here against last World Cup’s runners-up will eliminate them from the tournament.
Here is our Preview and Predictions for the game.
France began their campaign with a 3-1 win against Senegal, but their performance was a classic example of a game of two halves that gave us two different iterations of the same side. The first half was stodgy, lazy, lethargic, and discombobulated. The attack didn’t feel in sync and everyone was trying to be a little too unselfish. The defense was also not at its best and were put under pressure by the movement and the physicality of the Senegalese forward line.
However, the second half gave us a glimpse of Les Bleus in their element, and that is a terrifying prospect for all the other teams in the competition. Kylian Mbappe once again brought out his France version as he helped himself to a brace, while Bradley Barcola came off the bench to score the other goal. Ousmane Dembele and Michael Olise also had key contributions in the game as they eventually took care of business against the African giants.
One thing for France will be to avoid the slow and sluggish start against Iraq so that they get into their stride as quickly as possible.
Iraq gave a good fight to Norway in their opening game, but they were just not able to keep up with the sheer physicality and the imposing stature of their Norwegian counterparts as they fell to a 4-1 defeat. Iraq tried to do too many things but were not able to pull it off.
There was an element of fear and trepidation while they had the ball and that was evident in the third goal when their goalkeeper dawdled too much only for Erling Haaland to come and score off his moment of hesitation.
For all the admiration of Iraq and their journey to the World Cup, it is very hard to look beyond France as the favourites in this game and expect them to win by a very convincing margin.
Score Prediction: France 4-0 Iraq
Venue: Philadelphia Stadium, Philadelphia.
World Cup debutants Jordan will face African opponents Algeria in their second group stage game…
Welsh football club Wrexham AFC, who currently are competing in the EFL Championship and owned…
Canada Soccer has inked a new partnership with Samsung which will see Samsung become the…
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has announced a new partnership with the Alrajhi Bank, who…
Canada Soccer has signed a new partnership with Meta which will see both work together…
The defending champions Argentina will face European opponent Austria in their second group stage game…