Moving the World Cup to winter blessing in disguise for atrocious France

Before their first match of the UEFA Nations League, the defending Champions were unbeaten in 20 matches for games ending in 90 minutes with their only loss in that period coming against Switzerland via a penalty shootout in the round of 16 of the European Championship last summer.

France kicked off their Nations League campaign with a defeat against Denmark and followed it up with two draws before losing again to Croatia on Monday night.

Missing Paul Pogba and the likes, France have struggled to impose their will on their opponents, losing the ability to control games.

France has only lost a game where Pogba and Kante has started together and that does not even count for games ending in 90 minutes, because the only loss was on penalty shout-out against Switzerland in the Euros last summer.

Both players hasn't started together since that game as well and lately, that impact is having it's toll on results and the team's performance.

Manager, Didier Deschamps is currently integrating new faces into the system and albeit these personnels are gifted, the nation is still struggling to put them to working together to yield desired results.

In this case, postponing the world cup until the winter is a move the country will feel has turned to be blessings in disguise for them as they currently look vulnerable to become a victim of a recurring World Cup curse.

In each of the last three editions of the competition, each of the defending Champions have all been eliminated from the group stages.

After winning the competition in 2006 by beating host country, Germany in the final, Italy went into the World Cup in South Africa looking to defend their crown but unfortunately, that dream ended prematurely as they were ousted in the group stages.

Starring in group F as the best ranked nation amongst Slovenia, New Zealand and Paraguay, the four times winners picked up only two draws, losing their final group game to Slovenia as they disappointingly bow out of the competition.

2010 winners Spain extended their domination to the 2012 European Championships, where they successfully defended the crown they won four years earlier, when they beat Italy 4–0 in the final at the Olympic Stadium, Kyiv, Ukraine.

However, when they reached the World Cup two years later, it was utter disaster despite being hugely favoured to record another success.

They lost two of their three group games against The Netherlands and Chile by an aggregate of 7-1 and already confirmed eliminated after the second game, before sealing a needless 3-0 win over Australia in their final group game. 

That year, Germany went on to win the title and the Diemanshaft had a fairly good outing at the European Championships in 2016, where they lost out in the semi final to France.

But at the World Cup in 2018, the curse strike again and the four times world cup winners won just one of three group games to suffer group exit.

Had the competition not been moved, it's obvious France could also share of the curse and it appears they have now evaded the curse, though it is still to be seen if they can turn things round before November.

The lost to Denmark in the Nations League is a fixture that would have been played this month, while Tunisia are also unbeaten since losing in the African Cup of Nations quarter finals, where they also beat Nigeria.

Australia yesterday beat Peru on penalties to seal progress to the World Cup finals and with all these evidence, France can look up and bless the skies for what has been an indirectly a fortunate turn out of event.

Author: Kehinde Hassan Afolabi