{"id":153701,"date":"2022-12-10T10:51:07","date_gmt":"2022-12-10T10:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/england-v-france-a-heavyweight-contest-to-define-the-southgate-era-world-cup-2022\/"},"modified":"2022-12-10T10:51:07","modified_gmt":"2022-12-10T10:51:07","slug":"england-v-france-a-heavyweight-contest-to-define-the-southgate-era-world-cup-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/england-v-france-a-heavyweight-contest-to-define-the-southgate-era-world-cup-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"England v France: a heavyweight contest to define the Southgate era | World Cup 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"
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D<\/span><\/span>arkness falls quickly in Qatar. The night steals in like a kidnapper, wrapping its shroud around the desert like a bag over the head. Sunsets barely last long enough to choose an Instagram filter. On Saturday evening, either England or France will also discover that in these parts, oblivion descends with a devastating brutality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Come 10pm local time, what has gone before will cease to matter. To the loser, the ruthless and often scintillating football that brought them to this quarter-final will be of no consolation at all. One of Harry Kane or Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 is a fraud. One of Didier Deschamps or Gareth Southgate is a moron. One of Declan Rice or Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni is about to be \u201cpainfully exposed at this level\u201d. Either the Football Association needs to take a long hard look at its French counterpart, or vice versa. Two hours of football decides the lot. Sorry, that’s just the way it goes.<\/p>\n

That we all willingly buy into this quasi-fiction is what lends World Cup knockout football its maniacal power. A microscopic VAR call; an act of unrepeatable brilliance; a lucky deflection off the backside of Olivier Giroud; a penalty kick. On these slippery wheels are broken the work of four years. And for all the inevitable pre-match prophecy and post-match autopsy, England v France feels impossible to call with any confidence.<\/p>\n

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\nQuick Guide<\/span><\/p>\n

Qatar: beyond the football<\/h4>\n

<\/svg><\/span>show<\/span><\/span><\/summary>\n

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This is a World Cup like no other. For the last 12 years the Guardian has been reporting on the issues surrounding Qatar 2022, from corruption and human rights abuses to the treatment of migration workers and discriminatory laws. The best of our journalism is gathered on our dedicated Qatar: Beyond the Football home page for those who want to go deeper into the issues beyond the pitch.<\/p>\n

Guardian reporting goes far beyond what happens on the pitch. Support our investigative journalism today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/svg>Photograph: Caspar Benson<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Tempo is one reason for this. Unlike Spain or Argentina, France and England lack a recognisable motif, a single consistent energy. This is both blessing and curse. Few teams rival France’s ability to accelerate through the gears, to turn patience to impatience, ice to fire, verse to chorus.<\/p>\n

They sit, they settle, they absorb, they go quiet. Then they attack with sudden and concussive speed, a sensory overload that short-circuits a defense in seconds. But the rest of the time they give you a chance.<\/p>\n

England have also played this tournament at two speeds. For 30 minutes against Wales and Senegal, and for 90 minutes against the United States, they looked bereft and maladroit: a team of spoons in a world of pork chops. But in their moments of clarity, when the wingers dovetail and the midfielders storm the keep, few teams can withstand them. Southgate’s substitutions have often been dazzlingly effective.<\/p>\n

Mbapp\u00e9 and Kane personify this dichotomy. Mbapp\u00e9 will consciously harness his efforts during a game, saving his legs for the eight or nine full-gas sprints that will capture his evening. He barely defended. He will not come back at set pieces. Incredibly, he has not touched the ball in France’s defensive third all tournament. But he has had 42 touches in the opposition penalty area: more than Kane, Phil Foden, Jude Bellingham and Bukayo Saka combined.<\/p>\n

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\"Kylian<\/picture><\/div>
<\/svg><\/span>Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 saves his sprints for when they will be most effective in each match.<\/span> Photograph: Fran\u00e7ois Nel\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kane’s extremes manifest differently. Few strikers are better at disrupting the balance of a defense: holding the ball up, dropping deep, releasing swanky diagonal passes for Saka and Foden. But when he quietens, England fumble a little. Opponents push up the pitch, squeeze the space, force England to punt up the flanks. If Kyle Walker’s supervision of Mbapp\u00e9 is the most important duel on the pitch, then Tchouam\u00e9ni against Kane is a close second.<\/p>\n

Here the roles of Bellingham and Antoine Griezmann will be vital: sniffing out space, creating supremacies out wide, making dangerous runs beyond the backline, snuffing out counterattacks at source. With Giroud and Kane in retreat, and assuming an unchanged England 4-3-3, the midfield essentially comprises two diamonds. Kane and Bellingham will try to overload Tchouam\u00e9ni; Griezmann and Giroud will do the same with Rice. Jordan Henderson and Adrien Rabiot will merrily slap each other around all night.<\/p>\n

A tight, structured game probably suits England; if it stretches, France can usually be trusted to score one goal more than you.<\/p>\n

Where France hold the clear advantage is in pedigree, pacing, knowing how these games are won. They have faced teams as good as England; Southgate’s England have never faced a team as good as this France. France know how to defend a lead and they know how to chase one. Their squad, many of whom won in Russia in 2018, drips with big-game panache. Ten Champions League medals to England’s three tells a story; when it comes to losing finals, meanwhile, England lead 10 to six.<\/p>\n

Have England learned from their mistakes? All three of their tournament exits (Croatia 2018, Netherlands 2019, Italy 2021) came after peaking too soon, mislaying the balance between aggression and caution. Here, the very opposite has been true: stay in the game, build the layers, identify the problems before you solve them. Really this has been the story of Southgate’s England: a journey of refinement, machine learning, fitful growth. Talent has been added. Talent has been discarded. Systems have been trialled and junked. But every misstep has toughened them a little.<\/p>\n

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