I don't think France will be the strongest contender for the Qatat World Cup title after today's victory. France will likely meet England in the quarter-finals if England win against Senegal in a moment. Apart from that Spain and Portugal in my opinion will also qualify from this stage so I think France still has to fight to beat strong opponents to reach the final.
If the scenario I think is correct, then I think France will meet Portugal or Spain in the semi-finals if France manages to win in the quarter-finals. So it takes a lot of work to get to the final, and it's never going to be easy.
France will certainly face England in the quarter-finals, considering that England won the match against Senegal with a score of 3-0. In head to head France lost badly to England, it was recorded that they were only able to win nine matches against England in all competitions, while England were able to record a perfect win eleven times, the rest were draws from the 30 matches they played
But right now France is also in the best condition. Apart from wanting to defend the previous World Cup title, France also wants to make a good record in defending the title, although it still looks difficult for them. While England also has the chance to beat France, at least the head to head result is good capital for The Three Lions.
It will not be easy, starting from the quarter-finals, France will have to face a team that will win between England vs Senegal, so France's challengers will not be as easy as before, it will be even more difficult when facing a stronger team because France was the defending champion in the previous World Cup. I think that indeed France will be a strong challenger for the World Cup now playing quite impressive especially Mbappe with a great game and also the provisional top scorer.
It has been said a lot about this scenario that France will definitely meet Portugal or France in the semifinals. This class will not be as easy as what is being talked about, of course it will be another surprise that we will see next.
Obviously it won't look easy to reach the semi-finals for France, as in the quarter-finals they will have to face England who excel in head to head. While Portugal will also have difficulty reaching the semi-finals, besides they have to face Spain, France or England. Until now it is still quite difficult to see the potential of a country that will advance to the World Cup final this year.
But ideally the semi-finals will be achieved by Argentina, Brazil, France and Portugal, personally I hope that the four countries will advance to the semi-finals, although England and Spain could be a surprise.