France vs Australia World Cup 2022: Date & Time, Preview, Prediction, Team News

France will be hopeful of defending their World Cup crown and their tournament kicks off against Australia in Qatar.

Charlotte Pho

November 23, 2022 | 00:16

Kylian Mbappe and co have the strongest squad at the World Cup and Didier Deschamps has the perfect blend of youth and experience to choose from.

Australia, on the other hand, will be fighting to just progress out of the group and into the knockout stages.

Graham Arnold's men didn't have a great qualifying campaign, winning just four of their 10 games, and they could be found out by France.

Date, kick-off time and venue

Photo: Khel Now

The World Cup group stage game is scheduled for a 7pm GMT kick-off time today, Tuesday November 22, 2022.

Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah will host.

France vs Australia team news

Benzema was already battling knee and hamstring concerns, and is now out of the entire tournament due to a thigh tear sustained while sprinting in a training session on Saturday.

Christopher Nkunku, meanwhile, was forced to drop out of the squad after his own training injury suffered earlier in the week and Randal Kolo Munai has replaced him.

Photo: Getty Images

Injury-plagued France were already without the likes of N’Golo Kante, Paul Pogba and Presnel Kimpembe.

For Australia, Martin Boyle has recovered from an injury suffered with Hibernian, while it will be fascinating to see whether or not incoming Newcastle teenager Garang Kuol gets a start.

France predicted line-up: Lloris; Pavard; Kimpembe, Varane, Hernandez; Tchouameni, Rabiot; Dembele, Griezmann, Mbappe, Benzema.

Australia predicted line-up: Ryan; Atkinson, Wright, Rowles, Behich; Mooy, Boyle, Hrustic, Irvine, Leckie, Duke.

France v Australia prediction

France will be confident of dominating against Australia on Tuesday night.

Didier Deschamps's likely starting front line will be Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema - and they have the likes of Olivier Giroud on the bench if things aren't going to plan.

Australia will try to keep it tight and hit France on the counter attack, as well as using set pieces, however France should have more than enough to deal with the Socceroos.

France to Win-to-Nil

Photo: Getty Images

France have played Australia four times in total and picked up wins in the pair's last two encounters in 2013 and 2018. The French are one of the pre-tournament favourites to win the World Cup and we fully expect them to start by securing all 3pts against Australia without conceding a goal. France haven't been in the best of form of late despite beating Austria 2-0 in September but Australia aren't used to playing against this level of opposition and even failed to score in recent international matches against New Zealand and Saudi Arabia.

Kylian Mbappe to Score

Many believe that Kylian Mbappe will lead France to glory in Qatar and we're backing the 23-year-old PSG forward to get off to a scoring start against Australia. Mbappe has scored 9-goals in his last 10 appearances for France across all competitions and has scored 12-goals in 13 starts for PSG in Ligue 1, so you can see why the young forward is being tipped to have a great World Cup.

Head to head (h2h) history and results

France wins: 3

Draws: 1

Australia wins: 1

France vs Australia latest odds

France to win: 2/9

Odds: 5/1

Australia to win: 10/1

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