World Cup Class of 2018: France

Population: 67.2 million

Capital: Paris

Team Colors: Blue and White

How Qualified: Won UEFA Group A

Nickname: Les Bleus

15th World Cup

Head Coach: Didier Deschamps (FRA)

Key Players: Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), Paul Pogba (Manchester United), Hugo Lloris (Tottenham Hotspur)

Best Performance: Champions (1998)

Can they continue to improve? The start of the decade was rather wretched for France as they imploded in South Africa in 2010. Since then, quarterfinals at Euro 2012 and in Brazil in 2014, and they were runners-up at Euro 2016. The next logical step would be getting to the final of the World Cup on July 15th.

In qualifying, they had to wait until the last day of group play to qualify automatically, but it was job done with a win over Belarus.

Didier Deschamps has been manager of France since 2012 and will be one of a rare breed to manage the same national team in two World Cups. He is tasked with matching France’s accomplishments around the turn of the century where they were World Cup champions in 1998 and then won at Euro 2000.

France has a lot of good players such as Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba, Blaise Matuidi, and Hugo Lloris. The task is to build them into a team that can take on the best at the World Cup. It didn’t happen at all in 2010, it worked better at 2014, there’s still room to improve in 2018.

A game Australia side, a Peruvian side looking to make a statement, and familiar site Denmark are in Group C with the French. Les Bleus are likely to progress to the knockout stage, but a misstep could mean a second round match against Argentina. Portugal or Spain could well be a quarterfinal opponent.

France will have a tough road to build upon their quarterfinal appearance 2014 and runners-up finish at Euro 2016. They have the players to go far, but they need a team to go far.

Schedule:

June 16: vs. Australia in Kazan (5am CT on FS1/Telemundo)

June 21: vs. Peru in Yekaterinburg (10am CT on FOX/Telemundo)

June 26: vs. Denmark (9am CT on FOX/NBC Universo)