France, the reigning World Cup champions, have been warned by coach Didier Deschamps not to underestimate Poland and star Robert Lewandowski in the knockout round Sunday.
Les Blues breezed through the group stage and clinched a spot in the round of 16 with a game to spare, which allowed Deschamps to rest his stars in France’s meaningless final first round game. Nine substitutes started in the 1-0 loss to Tunisia, and Adrien Rabiot, Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Antonie Griezmann all came off the bench late in the game.
France, with fresh legs, are the overwhelming favorite to beat Poland and are the first defending World Cup champion to reach the round of 16 since Brazil in 2006. France are 5-0 in the first knockout round since the stage was introduced to the World Cup in 1986.
England take an unbeaten record in seven matches against African nations into their game against Senegal.
Despite no head-to-head matches, there’s some familiarity with Senegal: 10 of the players play club football in England, six of them in the Premier League.
England have won five of their seven previous round of 16 matches, including a 2018 victory over Colombia on penalties. Senegal reached the round of 16 once previously, a win over Sweden in 2002, but their tournament ended in the quarterfinals with a loss to Turkey.
See Sunday’s schedule below:
Round of 16
10:00 am – France vs Poland
2:00 pm – England vs Senegal
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