Switzerland vs France Prediction - Will The Swiss Cause A Setback To France?

Next Friday, Switzerland and France will measure forces at Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador on what will certainly be the most exciting match of the round for Group E.

On their World Cup opening match, Switzerland experienced some difficulties to overcome a well organized and hard working Ecuador team. The Swiss managed to bounce back from Enner Valencia’s goal on the 22’ minute of the first-half but only grabbed the winning goal very late in the match. Ottmar Hitzfeld’s boys were forced to do some extra work to win the match, nevertheless their overall performance was far from being brilliant as the team never managed to release themselves from the spiderweb mounted by Ecuador.

The match against France will certainly be a complete different story due to the obvious differences between Les Bleus and Ecuador. It is not very likely that Hitzfeld will perform plenty of changes in his team, although there is a strong possibility that both Mehmedi and Seferovic, who started last match on the bench, will have their chance at the starting lineup against France, replacing Drmic and Stocker.

For the match against Les Bleus, Ottmar Hitzfeld will quite certainly be able to count on all his players, since there aren’t any names at the injury list currently.

As for France, the match against Switzerland could also offer them a ticket to the next stage of the competition in case of victory. The French team experienced no major difficulties to overcome Honduras on the teams’ opening match, especially after their first goal from the penalty spot, which culminated in a red card for Wilson Palacios.

If Honduras managed to repel the French intense pressure during the first-half, the same thing did not happen after the break with Les Bleus being completely in control against a ten-man Honduras side.

Deschamps presented his usual 4-3-3 approach with Griezmann and Valbuena acting as some sort of false wingers in support of the Real Madrid’s versatile forward Karim Benzema. Since the match against the Swiss team will certainly have a higher level of demand, it is not likely that Deschamps will perform any changes on his team, that proved to be going through a very positive moment.

Despite Switzerland’s fantastic campaign during the UEFA qualification round and their win over Ecuador, France have to be considered as favourites for the next Friday’s match due to their recent positive moment and their experience at this type of competitions.

Switzerland

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

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France

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

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Possible Line-ups

Switzerland (4-2-3-1) - Benaglio - Lichtsteiner - Von Bergen - Djourou - Rodriguez - Inler - Behrami- Xhaka - Shaqiri - Stocker - Drmic

France (4-3-3) - Loris - Debuchy - Sahko - Varane - Evra - Cabaye - Matuidi - Pogba - Griezmann - Valbuena - Benzema

Prediction: Switzerland 1 France 1