Nizhny Novgorod: Uruguay’s chance of maintaining a clean slate in this year’s FIFA World Cup could be in danger as forward Edinson Cavani is likely to miss the highly-anticipated quarter-final match against a rejuvenated France due to a calf injury at the Nizhny Novgorod stadium here on Friday.
Cavani’s form has been exceptional in the group stages, with his best performance coming in the round of 16 clash against Portugal, where he netted two goals in each half to dump the Euro 2016 champions out of the tournament.
After he scored his second goal, the 31-year-old sustained the injury and limped off in the middle of the game.
Interestingly, both Uruguay and France have won all their matches so far. The two countries would be looking to match their respective teams’ defending and attacking prowess.
France would be looking to the 19-year-old sensation Kylian Mbappe, who scored sensational double goals to brush aside Argentina in their round of 16 clash.
Other players such as Oliver Giroud, Paul Pogba, and Antoine Griezmann would also be looking to take France to a dominating position during the match.
The ‘Les Bleus’ will look forward to honing the attacking skills of their forwards to breach a strong Uruguayan defence. It would be looking to extend their nine-match unbeaten run against all South American teams at the FIFA World Cup tournament.
Uruguay will be looking to bank on the attacking and defending prowess led by skipper Diego Godin and Luis Suarez, wherein the latter would be hoping to net more goals, if Cavani does not play today.
Here are the possible line-ups of the two teams:
Uruguay: Fernando Muslera; Martin Caceres, Jose Maria Gimenez, Diego Godin (c), Diego Laxalt, Nahitan Nandez, Lucas Torreira, Matias Vecino, Rodrigo Bentancur, Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani/Cristhian Stuani.
France: Hugo Lloris, Benjamin Pavard, Raphael Varane, Samuel Umtiti, Lucas Hernandez, N’Golo Kante, Paul Pogba, Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann, Corentin Tolisso, Olivier Giroud.
ANI