World Cup 2026: Why Van Dijk is like a ‘big brother’ at the back for the Dutch – Olivier Giroud

Another defender I am a big fan of at this World Cup is Germany’s Antonio Rudiger, who was one of the toughest defenders I played with, let alone against!

I hated playing against him in training at Chelsea because he was the same as he is in a game – well, a little more careful and a little less crazy maybe, but he is still always pinching you and annoying you like that!

If he is in good condition, he is one of the best. He has not started every game so far but if he is fit, he is a good combination with Jonathan Tah at the back. They look strong together.

What is most important with any defence however is the balance of the team. It does not matter how good you are because you also need to have midfielders who are going to protect you. If you are open, and you are against pacy players, it becomes very difficult.

The Argentina midfield is really strong in that way, because they know they have to cover some ground defensively for Lionel Messi, who does not have the legs to do that.

Messi has never been the one chasing opponents, pressing wise, but that doesn’t matter if behind him, their midfield is working hard without the ball to protect the backline.

Frenkie de Jong does that for the Netherlands and Brazil have the right balance in that way too with Bruno Guimaraes and Casemiro.

We had this with France when we won the World Cup in 2018 with our midfield of N’Golo Kante, Paul Pogba and Blaise Matuidi. They all worked hard, but if anyone left a gap then N’Golo compensated for it.

This time, France play with one more offensive player in there, so we will have to see if we can still try to score more goals than our opponents, without losing that cover deeper in the pitch.

I feel we can score goals any time in a game but if we can also protect our lead with a good defence, it’s a massive asset for any team.

Olivier Giroud was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan