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Uruguay vs France in numbers

Uruguay will be taking on France in the quarter finals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup this afternoon

France will be facing Uruguay for the fourth time in the World Cup, but for the first time at the knockout stage.

The last two encounters between the sides in the World Cup have ended goalless- 2002 and 2010. The last win at the Mundial between the sides went for the South Americans who secured 2-1 victory against the Europeans.

Uruguay won 2-1 in their last meeting against France in 2013. Luis Suarez got the match winner in a friendly in Montevideo.

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READ MORE: CAF names Kwesi Nyantakyi's successorFrance’s only victory in their past eight clashes against Uruguay happened in 1985. Les Bleus won 2-0 in a friendly match in Paris.

Uruguay could equal a national record by winning five consecutive games at a single World Cup. The last time they won their opening four games was in 1930, which was enough to win the tournament, while, France are aiming to reach the World Cup semi-finals for the first time since 2006.

They are aiming to make the semi-finals for a fifth time and for the second time in the last three tournaments, whereas, France progressed from four consecutive World Cup quarter-finals until losing to Germany at the 2014 tournament.

La Celeste have won their last two quarter-finals in 1970 and 2010. Their last defeat at this stage came in 1966 when they lost 4-0 to West Germany, while, They are unbeaten in their last nine World Cup matches against South American sides (W5, D4), keeping a clean sheet in seven of those games.

Edinson Cavani with three goals is the leading top scorer of Uruguay, while Kylian Mbappe has scored three goals so far this tournament - he is the first teenager to score this many in a World Cup campaign since Pele netted six for Brazil in 1958 and he is the one the French will be counting on.

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Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani have the best attacking, having combined in scoring four goals, which is only trailing  Poland's Grzegorz Lato and Andrzej Szarmach and Germany's Michael Ballack and Miroslav Klose (both five), since 1966.

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