Four Manchester United players have made it through to the quarter final stage of the World Cup after their respective nations saw off their Round of 16 opponents.
Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw and Marcus Rashford all featured as the Three Lions beat the African Cup of Nations champions, Senegal 3-0 at the Al Bayt Stadium.
Raphael Varane and his French team-mates brushed aside Poland 3-1 at the Al Thumama Stadium, thanks to goals from Olivier Giroud and a brace from Kylian Mbappe sealed the win.
In navigating the game against Robert Lewandowski and co. Varane had a good game as he produced a sublime goal-line clearance to keep the scores level going into the half-time break and his passing was efficient as he recorded a passing accuracy of 91% [StatmanDave].
Raphael Varane’s game by numbers vs. Poland:
100% dribbles completed
91% pass accuracy
53 touches
40 passes completed
3 interceptions
1 block
1 goal-line clearanceRolls Royce at the back. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/IqKHJH92R8
— Statman Dave (@StatmanDave) December 4, 2022
Varane would have loved to have helped his side keep a clean sheet in the win over Poland, in what would have been France’s first clean sheet of the tournament, but Lewandowski’s penalty in stoppage time ensures that wait goes on.
Varane’s Manchester United colleagues, Maguire, Shaw and Rashford had good performances for England as they saw off Senegal.
Despite misplacing passes in the first half, Maguire recovered well and continued his good form in the second half of the game. Maguire made 13 passes into the final third and won 83% percent of his ground duels [fotmob.com].
Solid at the back again.
💪 @HarryMaguire93 pic.twitter.com/Ea5xCBR269
— England (@England) December 5, 2022
Shaw also had a good game as he defended and attacked well as he had a passing accuracy of 86%, provided two accurate crosses and put a decent shift in defensively by winning his one tackle, making one clearance and two interceptions [fotmob.com].
Maguire and Shaw’s England team-mate, Marcus Rashford came on in the second half and played 25 minutes as he came on for Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka. Rashford had one shot in his second half cameo but by the time he came on, the game was already won so England were in cruise control,
What all of this now means is that Varane will take on his three Man United team-mates as France and England face-off at the quarter final stage for a place in the last four of the World Cup, which kicks off on Saturday.