France could be one of the teams to benefit from their travel schedule at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The French Football Federation secured a training base in the Moscow region, planting the team in the middle of the country. Given the size of Russia, boasting a central camp is crucial, limiting the amount of time the players are on the road in the build-up and aftermath of their group games where recovery time is vital with little time between matches.
Compared to their rivals for the crown, France are one of the fortunate teams that are spared a lengthy journey. Didier Deschamps’ men will make a 3,866 km round trip in their Group G matches, moving around from Kazan, Yekaterinburg and Moscow, where they will hope to advance to the latter stages of the competition. Les Bleus’ travel is mild compared to the 6,690 km and 7,388 km that England and Brazil respectively will cover during their group games. History is on the side of France given that seven out of the eight teams that advanced to the quarter-final stage in 2014 had the shortest distance of travel during the opening phase of the competition.
Deschamps will be breathing a sigh of relief to ease the stress on his players. A study proved that only Spain’s squad had played more minutes than Les Bleus’ players over the course of the 2017/18 campaign. France do have quite a young squad that does not have a great deal of experience of playing all-year round, with Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Thomas Lemar feeling the effects. Their form heading into the tournament has been sound, defeating the Republic of Ireland and Italy with relative ease. France will be hopeful that their quality alone carries them towards the crown after narrowly missing out on tasting glory on home soil in Euro 2016.
