Football Bet of the Day: Dembele can inspire French comeback

France suffered a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Croatia in the first leg of their Nations League quarter-final, but the pair meet again on Sunday (19:45, YouTube). The 2018 World Cup winners will be desperate to prove they are top dogs once again, and it is this fixture that has caught my eye for Sunday’s Football Bet of the Day. 

France vs Croatia Odds

Now, Croatia scored two great goals and missed a penalty in a flying first half in the first leg, but I think Didier Deschamps got things massively wrong from the off. For some reason, he decided to play Ousmane Dembele as a number 10, behind Kylian Mbappe and Randal Kolo Muani. 

It made France incredibly narrow and gave their full-backs no protection at all as the home side constantly got at them and delivered dangerous balls into the box. That front three could have worked naturally as a wide front three, with Dembele on the right and Mbappe on the left, but there is a real want from Deschamps to now play Mbappe down the middle. 

Things improved drastically on the hour-mark when Kolo Muani went off and Bradley Barcola came on as a left winger, allowing Dembele to play wide on the right with Mbappe in a free central role. France dominated the second period with Dembele having three attempts at goal and having far more joy taking on his full back. 

There is surely no way that Deschamps makes the same mistake from the off which leads me to believe that France has a real chance of turning this tie around. Instead of backing them to do so, against a stubborn Croatian outfit that has ground out shock results over the past decade, I’m simply going to back Dembele to find the net. 

Football Odds

What I saw in that second half from the former Barcelona man was incredibly positive and he’s a better price than Mbappe to score in this one. He is good enough to take on Josko Gvardiol if the Man City man starts at left-back while he also has a beautiful habit of moving into the box with ease and creating opportunities for himself or others. 

His stats speak for himself this season as he is enjoying the best goalscoring campaign of his life. 30 goals in 37 games from a more central role with PSG is incredible, and he could fire them to Champions League glory now that his countryman Mbappe has departed. 

He’s only scored six international goals in 54 appearances which is a disappointing return however I don’t think he has been used correctly, or trusted as much as he is in the current set-up. He’s proven he can do it for his club, now it’s time for Dembele to be the main man for his country when they need him the most. 

Given the French domination in the second half that saw him pose a real threat, as his nation recorded a higher open-play xG over the 90 minutes and more shots on target, I think he can find the net against Croatia on Sunday and inspire a French comeback in Paris. 

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