[Football- World Cup] 18.12/ 16:00 Argentina- France
Posted: 18 Dec 2022 16:00
[Football- World Cup] 18.12/ 16:00 Argentina- France
Both, Argentina and France, proved to have a high-quality offense throughout the tournament. Both teams scored each 13 goals in Qatar. Making it an average of 2.2 scored goals per game. I'm giving a slight offensive advantage to France, though, due to their offensive personnel.
Notably, Argentina's defense is the best in the tournament. They allowed on average tournament-low 5.5 goal attempts and only 1.6 shots on goal per game. Their offense is shining bright, too. They produced one of the best shooting numbers in Qatar. On average 6.5 shots on goal and 13.8 goal attempts per game. Outperfoming France in any of these categories. In particular France's defense has its problems. They could keep a clean sheet only once for the entire tournament. Admittedly that was a pretty lucky one as Morocco had a couple of big scoring chances at the end.
In this World Cup, France's general approach to games has been to be passive after getting the lead. Hoping for opportunities of deadly counterattacks by using Mbappe's and Dembele's pace. It worked quite well against weaker opponents. However, they have faced a high-quality opponent just once in the tournament, yet. Against England, it was pure luck that this strategy paid off. France sweated their way into the semi-finals. England's strong offense had chances to score not only the tying goal, but to get even 1-2 more goals. Maguires header, Bellingham's laser, Rashford's free kick and much more. But first and foremost Kane's 2nd penalty kick. The ball disappeared into the Qatari night and is yet to be found. If Kane would have converted this penalty or any other big chance for England would have went in, I would have hit a 3.5 units bet on England team total > 1.5 goals at +200 odds. I'm still not fully over it. Tough beat.
Argentina also used this kind of passive approach after having the lead. Weghorst nearly kicked and tricked them out of the tournament due to this passive strategy. Argentina got everything under control until they got too passive after having a 2-goal lead by minute 73' against the Netherlands. Argentina is warned. They already made the experience that this strategy is a pretty risky one and they adjusted accordingly, which they 've demonstrated in their 3-0 W over Croatia.
France's fitness status is at question. A virus had inflected their camp. Rabiot and Upamecano caught it just a couple of days ago prior to the semi-final against Morocco. Most recently, Varane, Konate and Coman were also dealing with flu-like symptoms. Such things like respiratory ailments can spread rapidly and infect other team-mates quickly and leading to symptoms a bit later due to incubation period. Even the most precautionary measures can't prevent it from spreading sometimes. Although they're well trained athletes, a flu doesn't go fully away after a couple of days. Additionally, Tchouameni, Giroud and Hernandez are banged up with a sore hip and knee, respectively. These are a lot of regulars, which aren't supposed to be fully healthy. However, the entire squad has taken part at the trainings session 1 day prior to finals. But this seemed a bit like a defiant reaction to the media coverage about the health status of the French players. It's a bit suspicious that French national team manager Deschamps didn't utter all-clear signals at the press conference about his team's fitness status. But that's a lot of speculation and interpretation. I won't put a massive weight on the questionable French injury and health situation. However, it's still something to consider.
My brother Findingaria made a good assumption about my World Cup finals pick. But I stepped away from Argentina team total > 1.5 goals. It's supposed to be a great value pick at tremendous +185ish super odds. In particular when considering France's defense, which was able to keep a clean sheet only once all tournament. But historically, in contrast to third-place playoffs, World Cup finals are often low scoring. That's hard to believe for today's one due to the sheer offensive quality of both teams. But the approach to World Cup finals differentiates mostly a bit from the games in previous stages of the tournament.
Offense wins games, defense wins championships. An old saying, but some wisdom in it, though. Argentina got both. A dangerous offense and great defense. While France has stunning offensive power, too. But their defensive had its struggles throughout the tournament. Plus, France's questionable health status on various positions doesn't make things better for them. Additionally, Deschamps' strategy, to be very passive after getting the lead, putting a lot at risk against such a high-quality scoring opponent like Argentina. As French passiveness would probably transfer into more ball possessions for Magic-Messi.
Argentina to win @1,90 Bwin
Both, Argentina and France, proved to have a high-quality offense throughout the tournament. Both teams scored each 13 goals in Qatar. Making it an average of 2.2 scored goals per game. I'm giving a slight offensive advantage to France, though, due to their offensive personnel.
Notably, Argentina's defense is the best in the tournament. They allowed on average tournament-low 5.5 goal attempts and only 1.6 shots on goal per game. Their offense is shining bright, too. They produced one of the best shooting numbers in Qatar. On average 6.5 shots on goal and 13.8 goal attempts per game. Outperfoming France in any of these categories. In particular France's defense has its problems. They could keep a clean sheet only once for the entire tournament. Admittedly that was a pretty lucky one as Morocco had a couple of big scoring chances at the end.
In this World Cup, France's general approach to games has been to be passive after getting the lead. Hoping for opportunities of deadly counterattacks by using Mbappe's and Dembele's pace. It worked quite well against weaker opponents. However, they have faced a high-quality opponent just once in the tournament, yet. Against England, it was pure luck that this strategy paid off. France sweated their way into the semi-finals. England's strong offense had chances to score not only the tying goal, but to get even 1-2 more goals. Maguires header, Bellingham's laser, Rashford's free kick and much more. But first and foremost Kane's 2nd penalty kick. The ball disappeared into the Qatari night and is yet to be found. If Kane would have converted this penalty or any other big chance for England would have went in, I would have hit a 3.5 units bet on England team total > 1.5 goals at +200 odds. I'm still not fully over it. Tough beat.
Argentina also used this kind of passive approach after having the lead. Weghorst nearly kicked and tricked them out of the tournament due to this passive strategy. Argentina got everything under control until they got too passive after having a 2-goal lead by minute 73' against the Netherlands. Argentina is warned. They already made the experience that this strategy is a pretty risky one and they adjusted accordingly, which they 've demonstrated in their 3-0 W over Croatia.
France's fitness status is at question. A virus had inflected their camp. Rabiot and Upamecano caught it just a couple of days ago prior to the semi-final against Morocco. Most recently, Varane, Konate and Coman were also dealing with flu-like symptoms. Such things like respiratory ailments can spread rapidly and infect other team-mates quickly and leading to symptoms a bit later due to incubation period. Even the most precautionary measures can't prevent it from spreading sometimes. Although they're well trained athletes, a flu doesn't go fully away after a couple of days. Additionally, Tchouameni, Giroud and Hernandez are banged up with a sore hip and knee, respectively. These are a lot of regulars, which aren't supposed to be fully healthy. However, the entire squad has taken part at the trainings session 1 day prior to finals. But this seemed a bit like a defiant reaction to the media coverage about the health status of the French players. It's a bit suspicious that French national team manager Deschamps didn't utter all-clear signals at the press conference about his team's fitness status. But that's a lot of speculation and interpretation. I won't put a massive weight on the questionable French injury and health situation. However, it's still something to consider.
My brother Findingaria made a good assumption about my World Cup finals pick. But I stepped away from Argentina team total > 1.5 goals. It's supposed to be a great value pick at tremendous +185ish super odds. In particular when considering France's defense, which was able to keep a clean sheet only once all tournament. But historically, in contrast to third-place playoffs, World Cup finals are often low scoring. That's hard to believe for today's one due to the sheer offensive quality of both teams. But the approach to World Cup finals differentiates mostly a bit from the games in previous stages of the tournament.
Offense wins games, defense wins championships. An old saying, but some wisdom in it, though. Argentina got both. A dangerous offense and great defense. While France has stunning offensive power, too. But their defensive had its struggles throughout the tournament. Plus, France's questionable health status on various positions doesn't make things better for them. Additionally, Deschamps' strategy, to be very passive after getting the lead, putting a lot at risk against such a high-quality scoring opponent like Argentina. As French passiveness would probably transfer into more ball possessions for Magic-Messi.
Argentina to win @1,90 Bwin