France Look Set to Break World Cup Jinx

The opening fixture which began rather sluggishly for the defending World Champions was turned into a galore of goals late into the match.

The French didn"t have the best of starts to their World cup defense campaign, going behind as early as the 10th minute of the game, Craig Goodwin putting his team in front with a stellar finish.

Didier Deschamps men however sparked to life responding to Australia"s strike eighteen minutes afterwards through an Adrien Rabiot header.

The Frenchmen went in front just few minutes later as Rabiot capitalized on a defensive glitch, before teeing up Oliver Giroud for an easy finish.

France kept the pressure on the yellow and green outfit as Mbappe struck wide Griezmann"s expert pass and Griezmann also fired a low shot few inches from the Australian goal.

Two second half goals from Kylian Mbappe and former Arsenal man Olivier Giroud sealed up the night as France ran riot in Al Wakrah and are now looking to break the World cup ill-luck that has raved on for the better part of the 21st century.

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History has it that any country that lifts the FIFA World Cup gets eliminated in the group stages of the next. This began with the Azzuri in 2006. After winning the Germany-hosted World cup, defeating France in an intense final via penalty shoot outs, Italy went on to lose in the group stages of the 2010 edition getting knocked out in Group F consisting of Slovakia, Paraguay and New Zealand. The Italians looked like toothless lions in their defense campaign managing 2 points out of 9 from draws with Paraguay and New Zealand

That year, a new national titan rose in form of Spain. Losing their opening game against Switzerland, the Spaniards under the administration of Vicente Del Bosque progressed in amazing fashion. The dark horses managed to win the World Cup scoring just four goals in the knockout stages, one in each match(1-0 against Portugal in the Round of 16, 1-0 against Paraguay in the quarter-finals, 1-0 against Germany in the semis and 1-0 against Netherland in the finals).

2014 World Cup

After having won the Euro back-to-back (2008 and 2012) and the World Cup triumph in 2010, the seemingly invincible Spain returned to the grandest stage to defend their title.

Their campaign got off to a very terrible start as they were manhandled by an electrified Dutch team in the opening match. The Spaniards lost 5-1 only managing to score a spot kick through Xabi Alonso. The Spaniards conceded yet another loss in their second game, 2-0 against Chile. However, triumphing 3-0 over Australia on the matchday proved insufficient in helping the defending champions escape elimination.

Germany, on the other hand, were really impressive, thrashing Cristiano Ronaldo"s Portugal 4-0, defeating the United States 1-0 and holding Ghana to a 2-2 draw.

The Germans knocked out the Algerians 1-0 in the last 16, bested France by the same margin in the last- eight, before demolishing the hosts and five-time winners Brazil 7-1 in the semis of the competition (Brazil"s largest defeat to any country)

In the finals, Germany defeated Lionel Messi"s Argentina thanks to an extra-time Mario Gotze winner as Joachim Low and his men lifted the country"s fourth title.

2018 World Cup

Germany took after the same disastrous pattern the previous world cup winners had, conceding a 1-0 win to Mexico in their opener. The Germans managed to rescue three vital points on Matchday 2 as Kroos came to the rescue for his team in the 95th minute of the game with a beautiful strike, winning the match against Sweden, 2-1.
The Germans however fell to an infamous 2-0 defeat on the final Matchday as they were upset 2-0 by a poorly performing South Korea, knocked out of the competition"s preliminary stage for the first time since 1938.

2022 World Cup

Back to the 2022 World cup, the French are the defending champions, having beaten Croatia 4-2 in the 2018 final to win their second trophy. Considering what has befallen the previous giants, it could have been expected that France would tread the same ill-fated path.

However, Deschamps" men are proving otherwise as they are already up and running here. Remember that the Italians drew their opening fixture in 2010, Spain lost theirs in 2014 and Germany also did the same in 2018.

However, taking into perspective, the energy, drive and passion in the French squad which was evident on the pitch yesterday, it"s seriously difficult to see history repeating itself this year. France look like a team poised for glory and should stop at nothing till they break new grounds here in Qatar. Les Blues turn their attention to Denmark as they will look to make it six out of six when they take on Eriksen and co in what has been an enjoyable campaign so far.

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