To beat France, Southgate’s heroes must show courage and go at them

Identifying the dangers is the easy part. everyone knows the qualities of Kylian Mbappe. He is red hot in the desert and setting a blistering pace in the chase for the golden Boot.

On the right, Ousmane dembele balances the team nicely and, with Antoine griezmann deeper, they have someone with the vision and instinct to get the ball to them at the right moment.

nullifying france is another matter. these three creative stars can influence the game every time they get on the ball. Opponents might try to cut off the supply line or crowd them out, but the beauty for boss didier deschamps is if they crowd one, another has the room to manoeuvre.

Let’s start with Mbappe, though, scorer of two against Poland and top scorer in this World Cup with five. He is electric on the left and perhaps the most destructive footballer in the world, especially if allowed to isolate his full back.

explosive from a standing start, Mbappe can move effortlessly off either foot and has the ability to pause, bring the game to a standstill, and go again in a flash, leaving his full back standing as he dashes to the line and pulls crosses square.

‘With time on the ball and space to run, he’s impossible to stop,’ said Mauricio Pochettino and he should know, having coached him for 18 months at Paris Saint-germain.

Having spent half an hour tormenting Poland’s Matty Cash on the outside, he drifted inside to create Olivier giroud’s opener. He then scored both his goals by cutting inside and peppering the goal with his right foot.

the second was a scintillating strike. the first was indebted to the link- up play and movement of giroud, first to find dembele on the counter-attack and then to open the space with a selfless run.

Little wonder there were slaps on the back from deschamps when giroud came off. With the 36-year-old as the centre of gravity, attacking rhythms flow naturally around him. to absorb six injuries to key players is a testament to france’s depth. Maybe it quickened the evolutionary cycle, too, injecting youthful energy from Aurelien tchouameni, dayot Upamecano and theo Hernandez into a wise old team.

giroud, recalled to replace Karim Benzema, is the magical gel, complementing the strengths of Mbappe and dembele.

no team wants to lose a Ballon d’Or winner. there will surely be a time later in the World Cup when deschamps will wish he had Benzema there. thus far, however, they are doing just fine.

giroud is now france’s top alltime scorer and in a goal groove, denied a perfectly good second goal after it was inexplicably ruled out for a foul on the goalkeeper.

Add to this the set-piece power of giroud, Raphael Varane and Upamecano and the exceptional delivery of griezmann.

yet at the back france will offer chances. they are so committed to going forward with flair they risk leaving space, nowhere more so than behind Mbappe, who is given a licence not to track back.

An injury to Lucas Hernandez has promoted his brother and theo’s instinct is to get forward and combine with Mbappe, relying on Adrien Rabiot to cover.

Poland exploited this in the first half and carved out another chance in behind Jules Kounde, a central defender deployed at right back.

Any team beating france will have to show nerve and attack them. Varane does not look at his sharpest after injuries and keeper Hugo Lloris is erratic, combining world- class saves with handling errors under high balls in a crowd. He can also be casual with his distribution.