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France vs. Finland, 2014 World Cup qualifying: Preview and TV schedule

France have guaranteed themselves at least a playoff position, though need a miracle if they’re to overtake Spain and qualify for Brazil 2014 automatically.

by Jack Sargeant
Scott Heavey
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UEFA 2014 World Cup qualifying: England, Russia, Bosnia and Spain are all Brazil-bound
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Didier Deschamps' team host Finland in Paris on Tuesday, with the visitors currently sitting a position and five points below Les Bleus. France should take advantage of their superiority and record a win, though are unlikely to overtake group leaders Spain and qualify for Brazil 2014 automatically.

For that to happen France need to win and hope Spain slip up and lose to Georgia, with a four goal swing in their favour. With the reigning world and European champions having not lost throughout their entire qualification campaign, the chance of that happening is minimal to say the least.

However, France's 6-0 friendly (or rather unfriendly) drubbing of Australia on Friday offers them some slight hope, with Deschamps having seen his side score ten goals in their last couple of games. Prior to then, they had gone an incredible five games without scoring a single goal.

Projected lineups

Finland: Niki Mäenpää; Kari Arkivuo, Juhani Ojala, Niklas Moisander, Veli Lampi; Teemu Tainio, Përparim Hetemaj; Kasper Hämäläinen, Alexander Ring, Roman Eremenko; Teemu Pukki

Match Date/Time: Tuesday, 9 p.m. local, 3 p.m. ET

Venue: Stade de France, Paris, France

TV: TF1 (France), YLE TV2 (Finland)

Online: ESPN3 (U.S.)

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