Arsene Wenger picks one country that can stop Kylian Mbappe’s France. It’s not Lionel Messi’s Argentina

Arsene Wenger, the former Arsenal manager and current head of global football development at FIFA, has predicted that Kylian Mbappé’s France will win the ongoing 2026 World Cup, and feels that if there is any team capable of stopping them, it is 2010 champions Spain, who he feels are in a better place “technically” than the two-time champions. France will continue its dominant run at the FIFA World Cup against Morocco in the quarter-finals, with the match serving as a repeat of the 2022 semi-final, which saw the African nation’s journey come to an end. Elsewhere, Spain will face 2018 bronze medalists Belgium, who feature names like Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne and Thibaut Courtois.

Wenger expressed his support for France as they lift the trophy for a third time after watching their performance so far, which has been dominant apart from a narrow 1-0 win in a highly physical match against Paraguay in the round of 16. Wenger feels that France’s “speed” and momentum will make things difficult for their rivals, and they will be difficult to confront.

“France will win the World Cup. I know you’ll say that because I’m French,” the Arsenal legend, 76, said on the Felix and Toni Kroos podcast, quoted by Goal.com. “But when you analyze the tournament a little bit, the train is moving at a certain speed today. And you have to be able to get on that train.”

Despite European teams dominating the squad for the quarter-finals, Wenger has dismissed Harry Kane’s chances of winning the cup, and also feels that Morocco and even the defending champions will struggle against France as well. In his opinion, only Luis de la Fuente’s Spain had the ability and technology to challenge France.

For me, the real question mark is Spain. If there is any team capable of beating France now, I would say it is Spain. Because they have a better technical level than France. They have a quality of team play, a culture of team play, that no one else has in the world right now. Not at this level anyway. So it’s between these two in my opinion. And then France became physically stronger, of course.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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