One of the biggest global events begins in less than a week: the FIFA World Cup. 32 teams are preparing for a huge few weeks and France play their final warm-up game for the tournament on Saturday when they face the USA, who unbelievably failed to qualify.

STATS

• France made harder work of qualifying than they should have done but managed to fend off competition from Sweden, finishing top of Group A. In their six international friendlies since confirming their place in Russia, France have won four, lost one and drawn one. In their most recent fixture, with Italy last Friday, they managed to come out 3-1 winners.
• It was a disastrous qualifying campaign as USA came fifth in CONCACAF qualifying, making it the first time they have missed out on the World Cup since 1986. They haven’t been much better in their friendlies as they were beaten 2-1 by the Republic of Ireland last Saturday after conceding a late winner. It has been a couple of years to forget for the Americans.
• Olivier Giroud and Antoine Griezmann were joint top scorers in France’s qualifying campaign with four goals apiece, they are likely to start the first game in Russia.
• Christian Pulisic will be disappointed not to feature at the World Cup as he actually enjoyed a decent qualifying campaign. He was the leading scorer in the CONCACAF qualifying section with five goals.

HEAD TO HEAD

The two nations have only met once in the past and that game was back in 2011, an international friendly. France edged the fixture thanks to the only goal of the game courtesy of Loic Remy but it certainly wasn’t a classic. Les Bleus’ last match against a side from that area of the world was at the last World Cup where they comfortably beat Honduras 3-0 while USA’s last match against a European country that will feature in Russia ended 1-1 in Portugal.

FRANCE NEWS

Despite their first group game being a week away, France are expected to field a full-strength side with it being Raphael Varane’s first game since his return from the Champions League triumph.

Latest matches: France

01.06.2018	Int.	France	Italy	3:1	W
28.05.2018	Int.	France	Ireland	2:0	W
27.03.2018	Int.	Russia	France	1:3	W
23.03.2018	Int.	France	Colombia	2:3	L
14.11.2017	Int.	Germany	France	2:2	D

USA NEWS

With no summer tournament to look forward to, a youthful American side will make the trip to Paris, Tim Parker, Shaq Moore and Luca De La Torre will be hoping to gain their second caps.

Latest matches: USA

02.06.2018	Int.	Ireland	USA	2:1	L
28.05.2018	Int.	USA	Bolivia	3:0	W
27.03.2018	Int.	USA	Paraguay	1:0	W
29.01.2018	Int.	USA	Bosnia & Herzegovina	0:0	D
14.11.2017	Int.	Portugal	USA	1:1	D

SUMMARY

This should be more of a light training session for the French side as they won’t want to overexert themselves ahead of a potentially huge summer of football. The home nation should manage to get the win over an inexperienced USA side, getting a good send off for Russia in the process.