Why you should watch every team at the 2018 World Cup

France

France are notoriously up and down at World Cups. Four years after they won the thing with Zinedine Zidane and co. in 1998, they failed to make it out of the group stage and picked up just one point from three in 2002, a sorely disappointing result with the likes of Zidane and Thierry Henry (who was sent off in the second group game) in their primes.

But in 2006, they made the final again, losing on penalties to Andrea Pirlo’s Italy after Zidane’s extra-time red card. They followed that up with another group stage elimination in 2010, and then they made the quarterfinal in 2014, losing to Germany.

This year, France have arguably their best team since 1998, and will factor as one of the favorites in Russia. Hugo Lloris will captain the squad in goal, Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante will anchor the midfield, and the attack will be led by such talents as Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele, Kylian Mbappe and Olivier Giroud. They are so deep that Anthony Martial failed to qualify for the final roster.

Expectations are high for France. Judging by their previous results this century, though, they are due for a down cycle.