France Euro 2020: Best players, manager, tactics, form and chance of winning

The Euro 2020 group stage is over and France are still looking to add to their World Cup win by picking up the trophy they should have won in 2016.

France hosted the previous Euros and made the final very impressively, only to completely lose their nerve and lose to Portugal, via a goal from Eder at that.

The French eased that pain by winning the World Cup two years later in Russia, but now they will be looking to banish the ghosts of that defeat by winning Euro 2020 and becoming reigning world and European champions for the second time in modern history.

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The best players France are bringing to Euro 2020:

Goalkeeper: Hugo Lloris

Owing to Alphonse Areola’s stuttering career, Hugo Lloris is still the undisputed No.1 for France. Proudly wearing the armband, Lloris is an excellent shot-stopper who is nevertheless prone to errors. His error in the World Cup final, allowing Mario Mandzukic to score, was the kind of mistake that could destroy someone’s career… were France not already 4-1 up at the time.

Defence: Raphael Varane

When in form and partnered by a rock-solid leader and organiser, Raphael Varane is one of the very best centre-backs in the world. However, when he has to be the senior stopper he can become a bit unreliable. Samuel Umtiti was his rock during France’s 2018 World Cup win but without Umtiti in 2020, he has become reliant on Presnel Kimpembe to keep his levels high.

Midfield: Paul Pogba

France’s midfield maestro has endured a stop-start 2020/21 thanks to injury but as the World Cup showed, Les Bleus are a much, much better side when Paul Pogba is in it. Obviously, N’Golo Kanté is brilliant but given the manager’s defensive disposition, there will always be people who can do what he does. France have no one who can create from the middle of the park with the kind of regal authority Paul Pogba brings; and by now we’ve all seen his World Cup final speech so his qualities as a squad leader are evident as well.

Attack: Kylian Mbappé

With apologies to Antoine Griezmann, who was arguably France’s most decisive player across their entire World Cup campaign and run to the Euro 2016 final, this can be none other than Kylian Mbappé. Of course, Griezmann’s poor form for Barcelona doesn’t help but Mbappé is an honest-to-goodness phenom averaging more than one goal involvement per 90 minutes (or close enough anyway). He has speed, skill and an utterly ruthless goalscoring instinct.

The head coach: Didier Deschamps

Didier Deschamps was a World Cup-winning captain in 1998 and he was a World Cup-winning manager 20 years later in 2018. He actually took charge of France in 2012 and has instituted a genuinely impressive winning mentality. In fact, Deschamps needs only nine more victories to clock up more wins for the French national team than any other manager has taken charge of games, full-stop.

Deschamps’ success has come in his finely-tuned man-management skills. Geniuses like Karim Benzema have been discarded (mostly), with Deschamps all but admitting their talent isn’t worth the trouble they nearly always bring with them. He’s got everyone focused and working for a side moving in the right direction. He’s far from expansive, which can sometimes hold France back against weaker sides, but he knows how to grind out results in the intense environment of knockout international football.

The tactics

France are an uncomplicated side, tactically. Despite a brief flirtation with three at the back, Deschamps has played a 4-3-3 at Euro 2020 in a slight variation of the 4-3-1-2 that brought success in Russia three years ago.

Lloris keeps goal behind the rock-solid duo of Varane and Kimpembe. Out wide are Bayern duo Benjamin Pavard and Lucas Hernández. Naturally centre-backs, the two provide serious physical and athletic prowess on the flanks and can add to France’s defensive solidity when they retreat into a rearguard (which is most of the time).

Kanté holds midfield flanked by two men, one is Pogba who functions as the chief midfield playmaker of the side. He does his defensive work but is free to push forward and join the attack. On the other side is a more basic shuttle player; at the World Cup it was Blaise Matuidi but lately, it has been Adrien Rabiot. The idea of that role is that they provide supporting runs both inside and outside of the forwards, creating vertical thrust in a team short of it.

Deschamps is an enormous fan of Olivier Giroud and the hold-up play he adds to the team. And the striker does have a great knack for scoring for his country — only Thierry Henry has scored more for France. But the return of Karim Benzema means the Chelsea striker has had to settle for a place on the bench this summer. Benzema is partnered by Griezmann and Mbappé who, along with Pogba, are the key attacking pieces of the team.

The form guide

Euro 2020 Qualifying: WWDWWWWLWW

France breezed through their European qualification with eight wins out of 10. They dominated every opponent except for second-place Turkey, a solid defensive outfit who beat them in Istanbul and drew with them in Paris. Besides that, Les Bleus walked their way into Euro 2020 with Griezmann clocking up a joint-best seven assists among all qualifying players.

Recent fixtures: DDWWWWWD

Les Bleus have been even more impressive lately than they were during their European qualification.  Their Nations League group posed them little trouble as they won five and drew just one of their six group games, booking themselves a spot in the semi-finals vs Belgium. They’ve lost just once in their last 16 games since the start of 2020, and that was a friendly against Finland where they played a weakened side.

Chances of winning:

Priced at 4/1 with Sky Bet, France are the favourites for Euro 2020. Understandably so as they made the final last time, are defending world champions, and boast five of the world’s very best players in their team. Their last-16 tie against Switzerland is fairly generous, but a potentially tricky route to the final follows with possible ties against Spain, Belgium, Portugal or Italy.