France’s first football team, the defending champion and seeking a historic double, will face, on Saturday, in the quarter-finals of the World Cup Qatar 2022 at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, an English team that dreams of repeating the achievement of the year 1966, and hopes to repeat the achievement of reaching the European Cup final last summer.
Despite the attacking power of the “Roosters” with superstar Kylian Mbappe, the tournament’s top scorer so far with five goals, things have become more serious in front of the “Three Lions” armed with youthful spirit, whose coach Gareth Southgate led him to the European Cup final last summer when he lost on penalties to Italy.
The irony is that these two European powers, who are geographically separated by a few kilometers, have only met twice on the international stage, in 1966 when England won a double and repeated that in 1982 with a score of 3-1.
France, which won its second World Cup title in Russia four years ago, paved its way to the quarter-finals by defeating Poland 3-1 in the final price, with two goals for Mbappe and another for Olivier Giroud.
As for England, it reached this stage after a 3-0 victory over Senegal, despite a shaky start against the African champions.
And before the possible semi-final match against Portugal or Morocco, the victory of the “Roosters” will be a strong message in the world of football, since since Brazil’s achievement in 1998, no title holder has succeeded in reaching the semi-finals of the following finals after winning the title.
As for elimination, it would look like the end of the French football cycle, with a coach at the end of his contract and many players undoubtedly playing their last World Cup, such as Giroud, Hugo Lloris and even Antoine Griezmann.
The English will also rely on a strong offensive line in which they stand out alongside Kane, Marcus Rashford, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Bukayo Saka, and even Raheem Sterling, who is returning to the national team from a surprise visit to his family, which was said to have been burgled.
The similarity between the two teams also applies to the defense line, which offers fewer guarantees than the offensive ones, even if the English defense has so far excelled with three clean sheets, unlike the French, who conceded a goal in every match.
What is certain is that this match in Qatar will go down in the history of the French-English rivalry. Because the confrontation between them already occurred twice in the World Cup finals when the English excelled, but Saturday’s match will be a precedent in the elimination matches. 
