Huffy-puffy France out to end Messi’s World Cup dreams

After playing the most soporific game of the World Cup so far, France will feature in a seismic last-16 clash of former champions with a resurgent Argentina on Saturday, and they will have to drastically improve if they are to stop Lionel Messi. Some fans jeered and others probably dozed off when Les Bleus drew 0-0 with Denmark to finish top of Group C while Argentina thrilled their fans with Messi scoring a superb goal as his team scraped into the knockout phase by beating Nigeria. In 2006, France huffed and puffed into the knockout rounds, where they beat Spain, Brazil and Portugal en route to the final. A similar pattern applied to Argentina in 1978, when they won the World Cup after losing to Italy in the group phase. (Video: SNTV)