Starting with Les Bleus’ opening-round exit 20 years ago, the defending champions at four of the last five World Cups have gone out at the first hurdle. Winners in 19, they failed to qualify in ‘90 and ‘94, and suffered group-stage meltdowns in 20. In recent World Cup history, France have had a fairly all-or-nothing tendency. That they avoided going down to League B - by one point - was only thanks to the fact that Ralf Rangnick’s Austria were even ropier than they were. They were beaten home and away by Denmark in Group A1, and lost in Paris to Croatia. They have won just one of their last six games, and were extremely fortunate to escape relegation from the top tier of the UEFA Nations League this month. On top of that, they’re a nation that continues to produce talent like it’s going out of fashion - just ask Real Madrid, who have four Frenchmen in their squad, and would have five, had Paris Saint-Germain’s money men not thrown the kitchen sink at Kylian Mbappé in the summer.įrance’s recent results have been very, very iffy. That’s not unjustified, when you consider that Didier Deschamps’ men are the tournament holders. The best price you’ll get on a France World Cup win is 33/5, which makes them second favourites. In the end the game was never rearranged, as both sides qualified automatically anyway.) 2. (In September 2021, Brazil’s home qualifier against the Argentines was halted by local health officials shortly after kickoff, because four members of the visiting team were said to have broken covid-19 quarantine rules. They topped the group, finishing 21 points clear of the automatic-qualification cut-off point - despite playing a game less than everyone else except Argentina.
Under Tite, they have suffered just one defeat in their last 29 matches - to Argentina in the 2021 Copa América final - and utterly sauntered through South American World Cup qualifying. In fairness to Brazil, though, their recent form has been more than half-decent. The one time they got beyond the quarters was on home turf, in 2014 - and once in the semi-finals, they were given a humongous spanking by Germany. Brazil have made last-eight exits in three of the four tournaments that have followed their win in Japan and South Korea.
Brazil are the bookmakers’ favourites to lift the 2022 World Cup: as of Friday, the longest odds on a Seleção success in Qatar were 9/2, according to Oddschecker.Ĭlearly, no discussion of the chief contenders is complete without the five-time winners - but, truth be told, they’ve been something of a quarter-final team since their last World Cup triumph, in 2002.
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