Group C Predicted Order of Finish: France, Peru, Denmark, Australia
A fun group.
France have been my pick to win the tournament for several months and I’m not changing my tune now. It’s been a mostly drama free build-up since the Benzema-Valbuena sex tape incident (that still feels crazy to even type, fam) and the French have one of, if not the most, talented side in the competition.
There’s some truth to the idea that Les Bleus have so many quality options their manager, Didier Deschamps, hasn’t settled on a best 11. It’s hard. Most things that are worth it, like winning the World Cup, are. But whatever Deschamps decides on, his anchor will be N’golo Kante, the space-eating, opposing forward swallowing defensive midfielder who reads the game at a Bobby Fischer on a chess board type rate and gives France the teeth they need in a game where despite loads of possession, they can’t figure out a way to score.
Kante is the spine of the most talented team in Russia.
Kante was the reason Leicester City—LEICESTER CITY- won the Premier League. He’s absolutely good enough to dominate this World Cup, subtly, lethally, beautifully.
The big debate with France is formation: whether to accommodate the ultra-talented Paul Pogba, who is best suited to play in a three-man midfield, or the silky forward Antoine Griezmann, who would prefer to be the featured central attacker in a 4-4-1-1. I’d go with three, and slot Griezmann centrally next to Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele, but it remains to be seen what Deschamps will do.
Denmark are smart, difficult to break down, and use a great amount of width to pin back opposing fullbacks. Their midfield are ball-winners and they like to dictate tempo.
Christian Eriksen is one of the best players in the world, a star at Tottenham Hotspur and the target of Barcelona and Juventus this summer, if you believe the pre-World Cup transfer rumors, which you should never do. Eriksen is given acres of space by Age Hareide by design, tasked with dropping deep to pull the strings in the attack and then, with his quick, precision passes, turning and becoming a secondary runner and late-charging goal option. His versatility is astounding and makes the “Danish Dynamite” fun viewing.
But for all Eriksen’s talent, the player I think is most fascinating for the Danes is Nicolai Jorgenson, who has had two brilliant years at Feyenoord, a good but not elite club in Europe, and has a fairly nice strike rate for Denmark (9 goals in 32 matches). He’s willing to drop deep and bring others into the attack as well, which is a useful thing on a team that utilizes two holding midfielders to dominate possession and attack from wide spaces.
Peru are one of the darlings of the pre-tournament talking season. At their first World Cup since 1982, no one will have more fun than Peru.
I wrote about them extensively in my World Cup overview piece, and with their leader (and a fine goal scorer) Paolo Guerrero cleared to play by FIFA after a strange cup of tea, believe they’ll edge Denmark, and an aging and moribund Australia, for second place in the group.
Neil W. Blackmon co-founded The Yanks Are Coming. Follow him on Twitter @nwblackmon.