England vs France: Who will be crying come Sunday?
What a busy weekend coming up, as the school community unites around the FISCA Quiz night at Blue Pool Road on Saturday evening and the staff enjoy a short get together on Friday night to celebrate what has been a busy, but enjoyable first term back to school. As much as I am looking forward to both of these convivial gatherings, there is another much rarer event that will be taking place 6,350 kilometres away in the Middle East which will do just the opposite for our community: the World Cup quarter-final football match between those two neighbouring teams of France and England! Much has been made this week of this upcoming battle between two of the in-form, favourite sides to go on and win the World Cup itself. Our community seems split: so what does past form indicate will happen early on Sunday morning?
The two sides have met in formal international fixtures 31 times since England won the first of these matches 4-1 in 1923. If we go on the overall record, England would be comfortable favourites as they have a Won 17, Lost 9 and drawn 5 record. However, recent history would very much favour France who have won 5, drawn 3 and lost only 2 of the last 10 matches. So shall we take the record at past world cups as a tie-breaker? Well, that would then clearly favour the team that won both of the previous games in the biggest tournament in football. So which team was victorious in both 1966 and 1982? Angleterre! But hey – who has the most stars on their jerseys having won the World Cup twice as opposed to only once? Yes, France. So……….decide for yourself! Past form counts for nothing in big games like these.
One thing is for sure. It will be a tense, exciting game played by two teams who seem to be in great form and each boasting some of the superstars of world football: Mbappe, Bellingham, Foden, Kane, Varane, Lloris and Maguire to name just a few. Whatever the result, the only winner can be football! However, just make sure you avoid me if the result does not quite go they way I want it to……
