France vs Iceland Predictions

Giroud, Varane, Griezmann and Mbappé were all on the scoresheet as the French thrashed Moldova 4-1 in their own backyard. It was a dominating performance from Didier Deschamps’ men as they approached the game in the most professional way by not being complacent and putting their stamp on the match early. They have won 13 of their last 18 matches now and are looking like such a strong force in international football. Part of this is down to the tremendous management of Deschamps but with a squad so strong to pick from, it’s no wonder they’re ripping up the competition. 

The number of trophies that were in their starting eleven against Moldova was incredible and with so much strength on the bench such as Tanguy NDombèlé, Nabil Fekir and Florian Thauvin amongst others. This plethora of attacking talent has allowed them to average two goals a game in their last eleven matches. A terrifying concept for Iceland to stomach. They only picked up four clean sheets in that time which is a slight concern for les Bleus though.

Iceland picked up their first win under manager Erik Hamrén on Friday as they breezed past Andorra (2-0) with the lion share of the possession. It hasn’t been the best of stints under Erik Hamrén with him going winless in his first six games in charge but they can now focus on winning games now that the pressure has been taken off their shoulders after the Andorra victory.

Iceland have been okay for goals under Hamrén with ten in their last seven but the defence has been the major problem as they kept just two clean sheets in that period. To be fair to Iceland, many of their games under Hamrén have so far been against top teams like Switzerland, Sweden and Belgium but with the results still being far below Iceland’s evident ambitions, it’ll be interesting to see how long Hamrén remains in the job; their 0-0 draw with 96th ranked Estonia has been a particular disappointment of his time in charge.

Iceland are a good side when stripped back to their bare bones but they aren’t enjoying the best of spells at the moment with them winning just one of their last 16 matches, France should have the quality to exploit their weaknesses here. These teams drew 2-2 when they met in an October friendly but with France out for blood in this qualification campaign, we’re backing them to get the win here, especially at home where they have won five and drawn two of their last seven games. France looked in fine form on Friday and we’re backing them to score more goals here in a 3-1 victory. Iceland have been good going forward recently so they should hurt this below standard France defence but we doubt they’ll manage much more than that. Olivier Giroud could surpass David Trezeguet in the list of top French goalscorers if he scores here and after his goal on Friday, we’re backing him to keep up the form and move up to 3rd in the all-time rankings.