What Bettors Need to Know: France vs. Mexico
France (-109) vs. Mexico (+250, 2.5)
What’s on the line?
Both teams drew in their first match, which means each is looking for a win to try and secure a spot past the group stage. France failed to score in a 0-0 final against Uruguay while Mexico notched a goal in the final 11 minutes of the second half to escape with a 1-1 draw against the host South Africans.
Les Bleus singing the blues
Skepticism and doubt were surrounding France entering the World Cup. The draw against Uruguay did little to silence the critics. The 2006 World Cup runner up barely qualified for the 2010 tournament (thanks to a Thierry Henry handball not called against Ireland) and France have been equally unimpressive in their World Cup warmups.
The center of storm seems to be on France’s coach Raymond Domenech. He made odd decisions with his final selections for his roster, leaving creative midfielder Samir Nasri and young striker Karim Benzeman off the squad.
Domenech, who France has already said won’t be coaching the national team beyond this year’s World Cup, made Patrice Evra the team captain following Henry’s move to a substitute role.
Rumor has it that Evra’s selection peeved longer serving France players like William Gallas. This is just one of many squabbles supposedly going on in the French camp.
"They didn't play together and it was more a case of individual efforts," Zinedine Zidane, retired French footballer and the Golden Ball winner of the 2006 World Cup, told reporters following France’s match against Uruguay. "The players must take responsibility for themselves, move themselves. You have to be straight with each other."
"(Domenech) is not a coach. He picked his squad and he has to make them play together. You must put your ego to one side and work together. Teamwork is the most important thing, and that's not what we saw during the [Uruguay] match."
France winger Florent Malouda summed up the situation best: "Football is simple. You have to win matches, and once you win matches everyone is beautiful and the best friends in the world. As soon as results become more difficult, you see stories appearing left and right. The only answer is to win games and then everyone will be smiling at you."
Mixed emotions
Mexico enter Thursday’s match confident but also wary of France’s potential.
“We know the power they have, the quality they have and at any time they can change everything,” defensive midfielder Rafael Marquez told reporters. “They are great players with great qualities and we cannot trust that you have not scored yet because we know they have the quality to do it.”
And while El Tri don’t have the star power of les Bleus, they’re confident they can get the best of the favored side.
"They have their names, we have ours. But names don't play, men do," Mexico captain Gerardo Torrado told the Associated Press. "Nothing short of a win is good for us."
Lineup changes and injury notes
There was a concern that Marquez, who scored the tying goal for Mexico against South Africa, wouldn’t be available for his team’s match because of injury. But the Barcelona international quieted those worries earlier this week.
"I'm fine now ... at 100 percent," he said. "I've had trouble with the calf and against South Africa I even was thinking of being taken off, but I've been able to recover over the past few days."
France are considering switching from a 4-3-3 attacking formation they used in the tournament opener back to their usual 4-2-3-1 setup. There’s talk Malouda will join Franck Ribery and Yoann Gourcuff among the attacking midfielders with Abou Diay and Jeremy Toulalan playing behind the trio.
Mexico coach Javier Aguirre could make some changes with his starting forward personnel but he won’t drop the three-attacker formation against France.
"It's what has brought us here and we're not going to change," Aguirre said. "Yes, we do leave a lot of space at the back, but we're going to continue this way."