Each, in their own way, is the center of the soccer universe.
Perhaps that helps explain why they so rarely enter each other’s orbits.
France is the reigning FIFA World Cup champion. England is the home of the richest and most powerful league in the world game. As close as they are geographically, separated by a 21-mile-wide channel, their men’s national teams have met only 31 times, have not played a game in five years and have not played a game that mattered in a decade, since they drew in their opening game at Euro 2012.
There will be a winner when they play in the quarterfinals at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. And, painfully, there will be a loser.
Both among the final four teams four years ago in Russia, ranked among the favorites to win this tournament, the luck of the draw has squeezed them into the same corner of the bracket and forced them to face one another in the quarterfinals.
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In a sense, we all will be winners when the game arrives Saturday, because it will be anticipated as the game of the tournament and very well could live up to that promise, in the way the United States vs. France at the 2019 Women’s World Cup quarterfinal showcased two teams that were capable of winning the trophy. (The USA won and eventually did.)
But it will be a shame to see a star attraction eliminated so early from the World Cup. England are the No. 5 team in the FIFA world rankings. France is No. 4. England entered the Round of 16 with the fifth-best odds to win the Cup, perhaps trending that low because this game loomed. France is listed second, behind favorite Brazil.
Are you getting the idea this will be a big game?
The world wants to see these teams. Whether it had to happen this soon, well, that’s what you get in a random draw.
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Are England, France the two best teams in World Cup?
In four World Cup games, France has won three times, lost once (while fielding a weakened team in a game that did not impact their standing) and outscored the opposition 9-4. England has gone 3W-0L-1D, drawing the United States 0-0 but scoring at least three goals in each of the other three games and recording a goal margin of 12-2.
England are so deep in talent that attacking midfielder Jack Grealish, acquired by Manchester City in 2021 for $117 million, has started only one game in nine appearances at major tournaments the past two years. Right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold, owner of every major title an English club player can win, has played all of 34 minutes in the World Cup.
France are so deep in talent that when striker Karim Benzema, the reigning winner of the Ballon d’Or, was injured before the World Cup, he was replaced by the man who is now his nation’s career goals leader, Olivier Giroud.
With midfielders N’Golo Kante and Paul Pogba also missing with injury, France could turn to Aurelien Tchouameni, so gifted as a defensive midfielder that Real Madrid moved out multi-time Champions League winner Casemiro to open a position for him.
Kylian Mbappe has been the best player at the tournament and the clear leader for the Golden Boot, with five goals. England forward Bukayo Saka is among seven players who stand two goals back, as is Three Lions reserve forward Marcus Rashford. There are so many gifted players on the two teams, we’re likely not to see them all.
MORE: Full list of starters out injured for France at World Cup 2022
England vs France doesn't come around often
The two countries have played five times at the Euros, most memorably in 2004, when Zinedine Zidane scored twice in added time — once on a free kick from just outside the box, then on a penalty earned by ThierryHenry — to revive France from a one-goal deficit to a 2-1 victory.
They have met only twice in the World Cup, in 1966 and 1982, both won by England in group play. They’ve not yet faced one another in a knockout-round game.
They could have played in the 2018 World Cup final. The day after France secured their spot in the final with a 1-0 win over Belgium, England met Croatia in the other semifinal.
England’s Kieran Trippier scored in the 5th minute, but the Three Lions could not make that goal stand up for 90 minutes. Ivan Perisic scored for Croatia in the 68th minute, and, in the second period of extra time, Mario Mandzukic scored the winner that put his nation in the final.
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Road to the final
The problem with a titanic showdown such as this, beyond the loser being eliminated from the tournament, is the winner must put so much into securing this one victory it could be difficult to reach that level again. And again.
The U.S. women managed after a harrowing 2-1 quarterfinal victory over France, securing a more harrowing 2-1 win over England in the semis, and then a by-comparison comfortable 2-0 win over the Netherlands to win a second consecutive World Cup.
The France-England winner this weekend might face either Spain or Portugal in its semifinal, and for the final the most obvious candidates are Brazil and Argentina. So this draw is about as severe as either France or England could have imagined.
It will be a wonderful thing.
While it lasts.
