France – Sweden

The World Championship favorite will live up to their status.

The French national team have impressively navigated the World Cup group stage. Having secured three victories, Didier Deschamps's players not only appeared to be the most cohesive team of the World Cup, but also convinced bookmakers of their ability to win gold medals. Initially, the French were considered the second-favorite behind Spain, but after the first round they had already taken the lead in the rankings. The additional convincing factors for the reigning world runners-up that everything is unfolding in the best possible way were the names of their Round of 32 and Round of 16 opponents. In the first knockout round, the French national team drew Sweden, whom it is hard to call a serious contender for anything in North America. After the Round of 16 match between Germany and Paraguay, which resulted in Nagelsmann's side going home, one can safely assert that in the quarterfinals the French will face, if not the weakest, then one of the least formidable opponents. The most important factor that allowed them to beat Iraq, Senegal and Norway in the group was the long bench of Deschamps' squad. Probably, if the French second team had been represented at the World Cup separately from the first, it would have, at a minimum, qualified for the knockout stages, or even contended with the first team for the title. If we put fantasies aside, Deschamps' squad has enough players to make any necessary adjustments during a game with the guarantee that quality won't be lost. The presence in the squad of three players who are among the top 10 in the world (Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise and Kylian Mbappé) makes France the most dangerous opponent in the World Cup from the very first minute of every match. As the Swedes can 'burn' opponents of a significantly lower class, they demonstrated this at the end of last year, when they were losing to whoever came their way, and in the current tournament, when they lost 1:5 to the Netherlands, who had already been eliminated. Graham Potter's side struggle to play as the 'second team,' and therefore against the French they simply have no chance. The ball simply won't reach the star players Djokeresh and Isak.