France vs Bulgaria: Preview and Prediction

France vs Bulgaria
European Qualifiers – 2018 World Cup
Date: Friday, 7th October 2016
Kick-off: 19:45 UK
Venue: Saint-Denis, France.

France had a disappointing start to their World Cup Qualification campaign after surrendering to a goal-less draw to minnows Belarus. The Group A has some tough opponents like Netherlands and Sweden, while their matchday 2 opponent Bulgaria are a good enough team to mount some major upsets. There is no doubt in the quality of the squad, somehow they are not performing at their best since a while.

Bulgaria had to work hard in their opening fixture against a lowly Luxembourg. A total of 7 goals were seen in the match and nobody would have expected Luxembourg to score 3 of them especially when the match is played at Bulgarian soil. The scores were tied up at 3-3 until a late goal from Aleksander Tonev saved the home side from an embarrassment.

France vs Bulgaria: Head-to-Head Stats

This is the first meeting between France and Bulgaria since their Euro 1996 group stage clash in England. The Les Bleus were 3-1 winners on that occasions, ending a run of three consecutive defeats against Bulgaria in competitive matches.

France have won in 5 of the 6 home meetings against Bulgaria, but the latest in November 2011 end in a defeat.

Bulgaria slightly edge the overall head-to-head record in 14 meetings against France in all competitions with 7 wins, 1 draw and 6 losses.

France vs Bulgaria: Prediction

The French side under Didier Deschamps have struggled to see off relatively weaker opponents in the recent outings. With Karim Benzema still out, the likes of Antoine Griezmann and Anthony Martial have struggled to fill the void. They only encouraging stat at the moment is their strong home record and their head-to-head record at home against Bulgaria.

While Bulgaria are a side that have flopped against higher ranked oppositions in recent times. During the Euro qualifiers, they managed just 1 point from 6 meetings against the stronger teams like Croatia, Norway and Italy.

This is an easy night for France on paper and let’s hope they don’t disappoint like in the group opener against Belarus.