France v Israel Betting Preview

The two games on Saturday night, in Paris and Tel Aviv, took European Group 4 almost to the halfway stage. The group has divided neatly into two bottom dwellers - Cyprus and the Faroe Islands - and the rest. The top four met Saturday.France drew at home with Switzerland, and Ireland snatched a point in Israel. That continued a rather strange pattern with the top four beating the bottom two; and every other game finishing allsquare.The six teams in the group are chasing one and a half places in the finals next year. The group winner will qualify immediately for one of the 32 spots in Germany. The second-place team will go into a playoff with the runner-up in another group.With half their 10 games completed, Ireland, Israel and France are locked together at nine points. Switzerland, which has a game in hand against Cyprus, has six points. Despite winning a World Cup and European Championship in recent years, France has not qualified for a World Cup on the field since 1986. It was eliminated in qualifying in 1990 and 1994. It qualified in 1998 as host and in 2002 as holder.This may be something to consider for those interested in backing the French at 8/13 to win group 4. Another reason why France look poor value is the number of players missing from its most successful era. Injuries and retirements meant no Zidane, Lizarazu, Desailly, Thuram and Henry in the most recent match against Switzerland. Against the Swiss the the French looked a shadow of the world class team from earlier in the decade. Admittedly they missed a host of outstanding chances to score, but so did the visitors.Looking ahead to Wednesday and it wouldn't be a massive shock if Israel were to beat France in Tel Aviv. Although they only managed a draw at home to Ireland at the weekend, it was a game dominated by Israel. France are not playing at their best and could easily come unstuck against one of the most rapidly improving football nationsSee all our free bets on France v Israel