Raymond Domenech’s faltering French side start their South African campaign with tough opponents.
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Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez has named his side to face France in their World Cup Group A match on Friday.
There are two changes to the side that defeated Israel 4-1 in the team’s only World Cup warm-up match on 26 May.
Mauricio Victorino replaces Colo Colo’s Andres Scotti in defence and midfielder Egidio Arevalo Rios of Penarol is in for Napoli’s Walter Gargano.
“The system we have chosen can adapt to the different things we could face against France,” said Tabarez.
This means that star strikers Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez, who scored 53 goals between them for Atletico Madrid and Ajax respectively, are paired together up front.
Forlan has enjoyed yet another superb season and has been tipped for a move to a big Premier League club after the tournament.
The former Manchester United man suffered a scare in training on Sunday when a collision with Walter Gargano left him with an injured foot – but he should still be fit to face France.
Suarez is one of the most promising players in Europe, having bagged upwards of 30 goals in the past two seasons.
Both Chelsea and Manchester United have been linked with moves for the 23-year-old and France will need to make sure they focus on him, as well as forward partner Forlan, if they are to avoid defeat.
Raymond Domenech’s France side head into their opening match with notable cracks beginning to appear in their squad.
Les Bleus, who won the tournament on home soil back in 1998, only just secured qualification to South Africa after a play-off victory against the Republic of Ireland that included the infamous Thierry Henry handball incident.
The Barcelona striker handled the ball twice in the build-up to the decisive extra-time goal from William Gallas that led to France going through instead of the Republic.
To make matters worse, France lost their last warm-up game to China and several key players have conceded the team is not playing well, with Chelsea forward Florent Malouda claiming France have “a lot of problems to fix”.
Defender Eric Abidal has also rocked the boat by revealing publically that he and Gallas have not yet struck up an effective understanding at centre-back.
Few have tipped them for success in South Africa but with players of the calibre of Franck Ribery in their squad, opponents would be foolish to write them off. (BBC Sport)
Everyone is expecting France to fail miserably in South Africa and perhaps that is when they are at their most dangerous? Some have even gone as far as to put money on Domenech’s men repeating their feat of 2002 and not collecting a single goal, but that seems a tad unlikely given their fairly average group.
Uruguay may well offer stiff opposition though. With Diego Forlan leading the line the South American side offers a very real attacking threat and they are pretty solid at the back and have a very able keeper in Fernando Muslera between the sticks. Could be a tasty tie indeed.
Here are some highlights of warm up matches the two teams have taken part in prior to their big kick off.
France 0-1 China
Uruguay 4-1 Israel