Spain vs. France: Why La Roja Will Overwhelm the Sub-Par French Defense

The French football team is going to regret blowing the final group stage match against Sweden, as it now faces a daunting match against Spain and a nearly imminent exit. 

France has no shortage of talent on its team, but no team has the same abundance of world-class players as Spain.

La Roja has experience and potential at every position, whereas the French stars are concentrated in the attacking third of the field.

France’s defense will be no match for Spain’s attack, while Iker Casillas and the Spanish back line will be able to bother the French forwards. 

While Spain showed an alarming lack of urgency at times during the group stage, statistics show that the team’s tiki-taka strategy is working just as well as it always does.

Through three games, Spain has controlled 70.3 percent of the possession. This is a staggering stat, and is more than 10 percent better than Russia, who is second in the tournament with 59.3 

Note: All stats in the article are courtesy of Whoscored.com.

The team also leads the tournament with an 89.8 percent pass success percentage.

This matchup should be entertaining for spectators, considering the teams are tied for the tournament lead at 20.3 shots per game. Spain has been more accurate with their chances and has been putting 9.7 of their shots on target, compared to seven on target for France.

With players like Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema on France, and of course Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta for Spain, it is no surprise that these teams have posted impressive offensive statistics.

However, France’s defense is not nearly as good as Spain’s back line. Both teams have conceded very few shots, with Spain leading the tournament with eight shots allowed per game, and France with the second-best mark of 8.7 shots allowed.

But France’s back four looked shaky in a 2-0 loss to Sweden. Spain’s defense was certainly not dominant against Croatia, but it did not allow many chances. And Casillas was there to save the day when the Croats did get a quality opportunity.

France has good defenders, but none of them are in the class of Gerard Pique or Sergio Ramos. Hugo Lloris is also a solid goalkeeper, but is not anywhere near the caliber of Casillas.

Both of these teams have talented attackers that have looked brilliant at times and disinterested at others. But now that the knockout stages are upon them, both sets of forwards will be at their best.

Spain’s defense will be able to handle the attack much better than France’s back four will deal with the crafty Spanish goal-scorers.