Uruguay V France : LIVE

The FIFA world cup 2010 2nd match will start the Green point Stadium in cape town.2006 runners-up France againest inaugural world champions uruguay in an early tussle for Group A supremacy.Uruguay, a nation which has qualified for the finals just once since 1990, are former winners of the competition back in 1930, the inaugural World Cup, and in 1950.They needed a 2-1 aggregate win over Costa Rica in a two-legged play-off to make the finals which epitomises Uruguay’s lack of appearances in the finals in recent tournaments.Uruguay first-team won’t resemble household names, coach Oscar Tabarez does have a handful of dangerous individuals ready and waiting to be unleashed in South Africa. Their main man, the superstar within the La Celeste ranks if you like, is recent UEFA Europe=a League winner Diego Forlan, who scored 13 goals in 18 qualifiers and has a tidy record of 24 goals in 62 appearances.Uruguay’s previous appearance in the finals of a World Cup was back in 2002 over in Korea and Japan, where Uruguay failed to win any of their three group encounters. They do, however, have a decent record against France at the World Cup, having never lost to France in two World Cup clashes. At a time, though, when French football has expanded and Uruguay have somewhat gone backwards, you feel Tabarez’s men will do well to preserve their unbeaten record against Les Bleus on Friday evening.
Uruguay V France : LIVE

France, who were losing finalists at the 2006 World Cup in Germany after losing a tense shoot-out with Italy, will look to go one better in South Africa by becoming the first country to win the FIFA World Cup on African soil. If their form in recent finals is anything to go by, France should fair alright – Winners on home soil in 1998 and runners-up in Germany four years go – but at the same time we shouldn’t forget their abysmal performance back at Japan/Korea in 2002 when finishing bottom in, somewhat ironically, Group A.However, we just can’t steer ourselves away from the French despite their recent poor showing in internationals. In fairness, France have rarely warmed up for any major tournament with too many inspiring results, so their recent friendly mishaps shouldn’t be taken too much into consideration in our opinion. Raymond Domnech doesn’t just have the best squad in terms of classy individuals, he has the stronger squad in terms of depth and should France need a goal at some point, if plan A does goes array, he does have a host of players he can bring on in a bid to alter proceedings, none more so than Thierry Henry.