Hopeful of making history by keeping a fourth successive away clean sheet in the World Cup qualifying matches, France head to the NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium to take on out-of-sorts Ukraine.
A 2-2 draw against Group D minnows Kazakhstan last time out gave the Ukrainians their worst-ever start to a new World Cup qualifying campaign in the nation’s history (D4). Having that said, Ukraine are very much in contention to book their first World Cup finals appearance as a sovereign nation since 2006 as they head into proceedings second in the standings, four points adrift of pacesetters France. Inability to hold onto a lead has seen Ukraine draw their last three World Cup qualifiers despite scoring first on each occasion. One bright spot is Ukraine’s impressive record of seven victories from their previous 12 home World Cup qualifying fixtures (W7, D4, L1), which includes a 2-0 triumph over this opposition in 2013. Defensively robust, the hosts have conceded under 1.5 goals in all but one of their last 19 World Cup qualifying matches on home turf.
Meanwhile, France’s underwhelming 1-1 home draw against lowly, underperforming Bosnia & Herzegovina has seen a few eyebrows raised as the reigning world champions continue to play below their high standards. But despite suffering heartbreak in the Euro 2020 round of 16 to Switzerland, ‘Les Blues’ should carry a fair degree of confidence into this meeting as they remain unbeaten in all four 2022 World Cup qualifiers so far (W2, D2). Remarkably, Didier Deschamps’ men have gone undefeated in 21 straight competitive internationals (W14, D7 – 90min only) since going down 2-0 at Turkey in June 2019. Yet, that run also includes four consecutive draws, three of which saw France come from behind to avoid defeat.
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