France and Ecuador are playing on the Group E World Cup schedule on Wednesday and the ESPN game will be live online from WatchESPN and starts at 4 pm ET from Estadio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro and the French side will try and win all three of their group games and this is a huge matchup for the team.
France is in first place in the group and they will move along with a draw, while Ecuador and Switzerland are in second place with four points. The two teams are currently tied in the standings and these games will shake out who advances and right now France is looking like they will win the group after a strong performance to open things and then a dominating win in their second game and they have been the highest scoring team in the tournament. South American teams have the advantage in the tournament and Ecuador comes in with the first tiebreaker over the Swiss coming into this match.
France has been playing very well and Karim Benzema is one reason why and apart from Lionel Messi, he may be the most impressive player at this World Cup so far. Benzema has scored in both games and the French side has won each of its first two games against Honduras and Switzerland by three goals and they are the first team in years to do that and funny enough one of the last ones to do it was France. ESPN writes that the last two to do that won the World Cup, including France in the 98 tournament and now they can put themselves in the conversation as the best team in Brazil with a win on Thursday.
France knows they have a clear path into the knockout stage and if they get a point out of this match, they will be out of reach for the Swiss and Ecuador, as they have eight goals in two games and their differential is just two. The United States and Germany play on Thursday and that's one of the most anticipated matches of the tournament and now one of the most important. The two teams can advance with a draw and they also can clinch the knockout round based on the result for Portugal and Ghana. The Group G group of death is one of the toughest draws in the tournament and no one gave the Americans much of a chance to get out of the group and they are still in position to win in as well.
The Americans came so close to winning that match and now they have to get a certain result to advance. The team now needs a result against Germany or they can try and play their luck with how Portugal and Ghana turn out. The team can get through with just a draw and if they lose, they will need whoever wins that match to do it by a certain score so they advance on goals along with Germany, who opened with a 4-0 drubbing of Portugal.
Check here for the France and Ecuador live coverage from ESPN for the World Cup.