Didier Deschamps’ star-studded France will look to have an easy passage in Group C and will most probably be followed by the Danish team.
As far as France is concerned, their coach is spoilt for choice. They have an amazing attack with Greizmann, Mbappe, Giroud and Dembele. In the midfield, too, they have Lemar and Pogba, along with Kante, who has done well for Chelsea.
Apart from consistency, another problem that might plague France is all their star players
have failed to perform as a team. These players are great individually, but for them to come together as a team and perform it will be a big job in hand.
As far as their defence is concerned, Varane will be looking to be the mainstay, with able support from Samuel Umtiti and Benjamin Mendy, who just came back from an injury. Their keeper Hugo Lloris.
France surely looks good to top the group. But consistency will be a problem for them as they have lost to Sweden and then drew with Belerus and Luxemburg in the qualification.
The problem for France might begin once they go to the knock-out phases.
Peru's coach, Ricardo Gareca, has become a national hero after he helped the team to qualify for the World Cup after 36 years.
A big relief for the side after their star player and skipper Paolo Guerrero could play. But again, with Guerrero, the concern might be lack of match practice.
Coming to Denmark, midfielder Christian Eriksen will be their main man. If it wouldn’t have been for Eriksen, Denmark wouldn’t have qualified. But again, it is not only him, you have Christensen, who is in good touch. Actually, Denmark's defence is one of the issues. Kvist – the mainstay in Danish defence, will be missed. Even though they have a very promising midfield the moment they are going against a team like France, who has a brilliant attack, after the midfield they lay exposed.
Interestingly, when Jose Mourinho was asked earlier this year, who was going to be placed second in Group C. Mourinho chose Australia.
Australia crashed out at the group stage in the 2014 World Cup. Tim Cahill, who is nearing 40, played a pivotal role in their qualification as he scored 11 goals and will again lead the charge for the Socceroos.
Squads:
France's 23-man squad: Alphonse Areola, Hugo Lloris, Steve Mandanda; Lucas Hernandez, Presnel Kimpembe, Benjamin Mendy, Benjamin Pavard, Adil Rami, Djibril Sidibe, Samuel Umtiti, Raphael Varane; N'Golo Kante, Blaise Matuidi, Steven N'Zonzi, Paul Pogba, Corentin Tolisso, Ousmane Dembele, Nabil Fekir; Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, Thomas Lemar, Kylian Mbappe, Florian Thauvin
Australia's 23-man squad: Brad Jones, Mat Ryan, Danny Vukovic; Aziz Behich, Milos Degenek, Matthew Jurman, James Meredith, Josh Risdon, Trent Sainsbury; Jackson Irvine, Mile Jedinak, Robbie Kruse, Massimo Luongo, Mark Milligan, Aaron Mooy, Tom Rogic; Daniel Arzani, Tim Cahill, Tomi Juric, Mathew Leckie, Andrew Nabbout, Dimitri Petratos, Jamie Maclaren
Peru's 23-man squad: Carlos Caceda, Jose Carvallo, Pedro Gallese, Luis Advincula, Pedro Aquino, Miguel Araujo, Andre Carrillo, Wilder Cartagena, Aldo Corzo, Christian Cueva, Jefferson Farfan, Edison Flores, Paolo Hurtado, Nilson Loyola, Andy Polo, Christian Ramos, Alberto Rodriguez, Raul Ruidiaz, Anderson Santamaria, Renato Tapia, Miguel Trauco, Yoshimar Yotun, Paolo Guerrero
Denmark's 23-man squad: Kasper Schmeichel, Jonas Lossl, Frederik Ronow; Simon Kjaer, Andreas Christensen, Mathias Jorgensen, Jannik Vestergaard, Henrik Dalsgaard, Jens Stryger, Jonas Knudsen; William Kvist, Thomas Delaney, Lukas Lerager, Lasse Schone, Christian Eriksen, Michael Krohn-Dehli; Pione Sisto, Martin Braithwaite, Andreas Cornelius, Viktor Fischer, Yussuf Poulsen, Nicolai Jorgensen, Kasper Dolberg
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