French Coach, Didier Deschamps have said that France have the options to stop Messi in their round of 16 games tomorrow.
Speaking ahead of the encounter, the former French caption who won the world cup as captain in 1998 said:
“Messi is Messi, look at his statistics, 65 goals in 127 matches,”
“Its straightforward, hopefully we would like to neutralise him, but we know very well he can make the difference with very little.”
“When you play Argentina and Messi, there are several solutions to limit his impact.”
As shown by Croatia, France will look to control the midfield and stop the supply line getting to Messi. Croatia perfected the tactic, which forced Messi to drop deep, limiting the damage he could do.
France will hope to do the same and hope their own starman Antoine Griezmann finally delivers at the biggest stage in the world. The Atletico player has only scored, via the penalty, in the 2-1 win over Australia and looked out of pace in the stalemate against Denmark.
France play Argentina in the second game of the knock-out round. The first game comes up between Uruguay and Portugal.