France didn’t have the most difficult of groups to navigate and they did exactly what was expected of them. They topped the group by beating Honduras and Switzerland and then took their foot off the gas a bit when notching a scoreless draw with Ecuador. They’ve looked very good going forward and in Karim Benzema they have a top quality goal-getter. This France squad have their head together – remember what happened at the last World Cup? Tough route to the final though – they’ll have to overcome probably Germany in the quarters, followed by possibly Brazil in the semis.
Nigeria’s key to getting through to the quarter final is to frustrate France on Monday night. They are very solid at the back and kept clean sheets against Iran and then Bosnia, who posed a much more potent threat. Although they only scored once in those two games, they did bag two goals against Argentina in a 3-2 loss. Only the magic of Lionel Messi hauled Argentina through with three points. Nigeria have good quality all over the field and in Emmanuel Emenike they have a real class forward. Keeping it tight at the back for as long as possible will cause France to start tinkering with their tactics and once that begins, Nigeria have the pace and guile to open up a vulnerable back line.
The latest odds on Nigeria beating France are 13/2.
LATEST MATCH ODDS – France 
v Nigeria World Cup 2014
France 8/15
Draw 100/30
Nigeria 13/2 with BET365
TO QUALIFY
France 2/7
Nigeria 7/2 with BET365
FIRST GOALSCORER
Karim Benzema 7/2
Olivier Giroud 9/2 with BET365
Loic Remy 11/2
Antoine Griezmann 6/1 with BET365
Mathieu Valbuena 9/1
Remy Cabella 10/1
Ahmed Musa 10/1 with William Hill
Emmanuel Emenike 12/1 with BET365
Paul Pogba 11/1
CORRECT SCORE
France 1-0 6/1
France 2-0 13/2 with William Hill
Draw 1-1 8/1
France 2-1 9/1
France 3-0 10/1
Draw 0-0 11/1
France 3-1 14/1
Nigeria 1-0 18/1
Draw 2-2 22/1
Nigeria 2-1 22/1
TOTAL GOALS
Over 2.5 10/11 with William Hill
Under 2.5 10/11 with William Hill
BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE
No 4/5
Yes 11/10
HALF-TIME/FULL-TIME
France/France 13/10 with William Hill
Draw/France 7/2
Draw/Draw 11/2
Nigeria/Nigeria 12/1
Draw/Nigeria 14/1
VERDICT: The longer Nigeria can keep France scoreless, the better. There’s enough experience in the Nigeria squad to contain the classy French and if they can reach half-time still at 0-0 they’ll have a real chance of nicking a late winner as France begin to panic and alter their formation and tactics. It’ll be a low-scoring affair with Nigeria running the legs off France and grabbing a late winner. Remember, these sides only ever met once before (five years ago) and Nigeria won 1-0.
