France vs Iraq Betting Tips and Stats

I’m fully expecting France to win with room to spare on Monday night, which is why I’m backing them to overcome a -2 handicap. Didier Deschamps’ star-studded side hit the ground running with a 3-1 win over Senegal in a fixture that looked like a potential banana skin. They now come up against even weaker opposition in the form of Iraq, and I’m expecting them to win by an even wider margin.

Moreover, France cleared this handicap hurdle in their World Cup qualification home wins over Azerbaijan and Ukraine. While they have not won by a 3-goal margin in more recent matches, they did claim some eye-catching friendly wins leading up to the tournament against the likes of Brazil and Colombia, both of whom are far superior operators to that of Iraq.

It really could be a case of damage limitation here for the Lions of Mesopotamia, who were swept aside 4-1 by Norway on matchday one. The fact that Iraq lost 2-0 to Venezuela in their final World Cup warm-up match only adds to the appeal of backing France to win comfortably on Monday night.

I’m backing Michael Olise to open his World Cup account for France on Monday night by scoring against Iraq. While the French ace didn’t manage to find the net against Senegal, he still played a crucial role in that victory by setting up two of his side’s goals. What’s more, Olise has been in strong goalscoring form for France in recent times, most notably hitting a hat-trick in a friendly against Northern Ireland in the build-up to the tournament.

Prior to that, the 24-year-old made the net bulge in each of France’s two World Cup qualifiers with Ukraine, while he also notched a couple of goals in the Nations League Finals last year. It should also be noted that Olise is coming off a prolific season for Bayern Munich, in which he scored 22 times.

As such, the in-form Frenchman will be rubbing his hands at the prospect of coming up against an Iraq side that conceded 4 goals against Norway last time out.

Back Aymen Hussein to commit 2 or more fouls against France on Monday night. The Iraq forward is a powerful presence in attack and likes to throw his weight around, something that was evident against Norway when he committed exactly 2 fouls.

Moreover, Hussein has been penalised in each of his last 8 appearances for his country, overstepping the mark on multiple occasions in 3 of those contests. That makes him an appealing option to commit two fouls here, where he will likely come up against the French centre-back duo of Dayot Upamecano and William Saliba.

Upamecano was fouled once against Senegal last time out, while he was drawing an average of 0.60 fouls per game during World Cup qualification. As for Saliba, he was effective at earning Arsenal free-kicks in the Premier League last season, drawing an average of 0.55 per 90. The pair should see plenty of the ball here, which should allow Hussein to consistently put them under pressure and increase the likelihood of him overstepping the mark 2+ times again.