EXCLUSIVE | Tony Cascarino on France: “I don’t think there’s any defence that’s going to stop them.”  | OneFootball

Former Republic of Ireland international and Olympique de Marseille striker Tony Cascarino sat down with Get French Football News to discuss the France national team ahead of their quarter-final with Morocco, and if they have any weaknesses in the first part of a two-part interview. ,

France are most people’s favourites to win the World Cup. Do you see a weakness within the squad? 

I’m not sure about their midfield at times. I’m not about their midfield at times. I look at Adrien Rabiot and think, yeah, good player. I can’t see them not scoring.  I don’t think there’s any defence in the World Cup that’s going to stop them. It’s whether you can keep them to a low number and also cause them [problems]. I think Morocco will give France the hardest game, because Morocco play a very aggressive game. I don’t think Spain have got enough. It could come down to that one-off game, where, by hook or by crook, the goalkeeper is brilliant for the opposition, and they miss their chances. People talk about [France] defensively, I think their defence is still decent. They’ve got some really good players. Dayot Upamecano and William Saliba are really good centre-halves. They’re a side that are going to be really hard to beat. 

They’ve got the most frightening four I’ve ever seen. We’ve all seen threes, like Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, and Ronaldo. But when I look at them, and I see oh Désiré Doué’s coming on, Bradley Barcola’s coming on, Kylian Mbappé’s already there, Ousmane Dembélé’s there – who’s going to stop them? Marcus Thuram is the sixth choice, who got 19 goals for Inter last year. He’s the sixth choice! And he ain’t bad [laughs]. He’s a different type to them. 

When I watch them, I just think, they’ve got so much speed, they can just switch it on. When I saw Mbappé chase a defender and make a challenge, I thought, “That’s it.” And he’s openly admitted that he’s going to have to do that for them to win it. So I’m thinking, if he’s prepared to do that, then they’re an even bigger problem. Mbappé, as extraordinary as he is, he’s not so willing to close down a defender. So when I saw him doing that, I said, “That’s a problem for everybody else.” He gives the whole France team a completely different dynamic. 

Tony Cascarino was speaking on behalf of Tonybet. Tonybet’s World Cup Card Collection campaign can see Irish customers win up to €100,000.

GFFN | Nick Hartland