FIFA World Cup 2018: How France can beat Uruguay

France has all it takes to win the FIFA World Cup 2018. Be it a strong midfield, world-class strikers, and strong aerial ability at the attacking front. However, their Quarterfinal clash against Uruguay could be the hardest battle they have and would face in Russia 2018  if they are through to the Semis. Uruguay has a strong defensive set up which gives them a great tactical advantage in offence too even without Cavani. However, Les Bleus still remains the favourites to mark their place in the Final Four. Lets see how they can beat Tabárezs men.

Uruguay has a strong defensive setup including the world-class central defence partnership of Gimenez and Godin who restrain to their zone like a brick. Then the marking system of the home team in the defensive phase is too organised and tight to give space to the opponents. Tactically, they fill up the deep areas to congest them leaving only the flanks open where they are ready to take over the opponents with 1v1, 2v1, or if needed 2v2, as it can be seen in Uruguay vs Portugal and Uruguay vs Saudi Arabia. This creates a strong and balanced defensive setup for La Celeste.

In such case, the opponents can thrive only if they are good to counter the press. Fortunately, the attacking trio of Giroud, Griezmann, and the midfielder-cum-striker Mbappe are the kind of resources France needs to breach through the press in various settings.

As Uruguay tend to crowd up the central plane to force opponent play wider while France also can hardly penetrate a deeply concentrated defence, the best strategy for Deschamps men would be to carry out their passing play at the flank and half spaces. Specifically, Mbappe or Leymar at the attacking wing can pull out to the respective widest possible plane while working with Griezmann and Giroud on cross passings and off-ball cross movements through the wings and half spaces. This would enable them to overtake and cut through the defenders from the wider planes and penetrate to the inside in the advanced regions. A similar kind of play was observed in France vs Denmark as well where Lemar brilliantly worked his way up the half space while cutting deep between the lines. However, given Frances passing play is not horizontally coherent (see passing map below), the deeper moves of the winger often remained unsupported by the teammates.

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