Your bluffer's guide to the World Cup: France 🇫🇷 | OneFootball

There are 32 teams at the World Cup, far too many to research individually. Nobody’s got time for that.

Here at Onefootball, though, we’ve gone through every nation at the tournament and picked out all the important stuff so you can pretend to know what you’re talking about.

Need to know something about France? You’ve come to the right place.

The key player is … Antoine Griezmann

Coming off the second best goalscoring season of his career, Griezmann has to deliver for France to succeed. The Atlético Madrid forward scored six of their 13 goals at Euro 2016 and little about the team has changed since.

Griezmann isn’t necessarily the quickest but he interprets space perfectly and is clinical when through on goal. In the big games you might only get one chance, France will be hoping that one chance falls to him in the later stages of the competition.

The young player to watch out for is … Ousmane Dembélé

After an uncomfortable first season at Barcelona the winger has everything to prove. Dembélé’s style can look erratic but there’s a method to his madness and, at his best, he can torment defenders. A first class dribbler, equally comfortable with both feet, and incredibly unselfish, this can be his World Cup. He also has the benefit of a light league season behind him.

Where others go to Russia off the back of 50-game season, Dembélé is relatively fresh and can make the most of it.

I would like a fun fact about the coach. What can you tell me?

As a player, Deschamps is the youngest ever Champions League winning captain, leading his Marseille side to the trophy in 1993 at the age of 24.

And that’s not all! After Franz Beckenbauer, he was just the second player in history to captain a side to the Champions League, the World Cup, and the European Championships. Iker Casillas has since achieved the same feat.

If I were to get a line of the national anthem tattooed onto my back, what should I go for?

“Le jour de gloire est arrivé!”

Or in English: “the day of glory has arrived!”

There are a few more aggressive alternatives from La Marseillaise but we don’t want your tattoo artist to think you’re about to go on a rampage.

Summarise this team for me in one emoji, please

Who will make their best XI in Russia?

And finally, tell me how the team will perform in Russia?

They could go all the way or they could flop. Considering the talent in the side you may anticipate a glorious summer but we are far from convinced by their performances under Didier Deschamps. Should they win the group, they’ll probably play Brazil in the semi-final and that will be the end of the road.