With five goals to his name already in Qatar, the Paris Saint-Germain forward has undoubtedly been the player of the competition till now.
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Football fans are in for a feast when European giants England and France go head-to-head in the quarterfinals of FIFA World Cup 2022. Both teams are in fine form in Qatar and will head into this contest fully believing in their ability to reach the semifinals. France are the defending champions, while England reached the last-four stage in Russia 2018. Four years later, France are still expected to be the favourites in this tournament, while an unbeaten England side have been largely impressive so far in this competition, making this contest all the more unpredictable.
One player England must keep an eye on is France’s forward Kylian Mbappe. With five goals to his name already in Qatar, the Paris Saint-Germain forward has undoubtedly been the player of the competition till now. England left-back Luke Shaw spoke about what he has to do to keep Mbappe in check when these two sides clash with each other. “Obviously after his performance (against Poland) there’s going to be even more chat about him but we know he’s a world-class player,” Shaw was quoted as saying by skysports.com.
“I think it would be very naive of us to focus purely on him. They’re reigning world champions for a reason and we need to focus on them as a whole team. They have brilliant players over the whole pitch so we’re not going to fully focus on him, but it’s an amazing tie to be involved in and that’s why we’re here.”
𝘈𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵: @KMbappe
𝘎𝘰𝘢𝘭: @_OlivierGiroud_🔥 #FiersdetreBleus pic.twitter.com/7Fg8G3clb1
— French Team ⭐⭐ (@FrenchTeam) December 4, 2022
England impressed in their 3-0 victory over Senegal in their round-of-16 match. Speaking about it, the Manchester United full-back said, “I think we’re really happy with the victory, another clean sheet obviously. We were more clinical in front of goal. We defended well as well, not too many chances for them.”
“Obviously in the first half a couple of sloppy passes from us put ourselves under pressure, but apart from that, overall I think it’s a solid performance and what a game to look forward to next. It needs to give us confidence and the belief, it’s obviously not going to be easy. They are reigning world champions and they are that for a reason. It will be a very tough game and mentally we have to be ready and focused because we have to be at 100 per cent to win this game and we know that.”
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Shaw then went on to speak about his experience of playing in the World Cup and how there is no easy game there. “It’s been an amazing tournament, an unbelievable one to watch and it shows no game is easy,” he stated. “We always speak before about the favourites and this and that and when you come to a World Cup it’s always different – the atmosphere, the game, the heat.”
He added: “It’s all things you need to get used to and I think you’ve seen with a couple of the big names you maybe think should be through are not and that shows we’re obviously doing the right things at the moment, but I think we need to step up another level because France are a very good team.”
