England vs France, World Cup 2022 quarter-final: Date, kick-off time and TV channel

A few minutes after 6pm in Qatar, it appeared as if England’s dreams had suddenly come true. As the French players trotted out for their training session, beneath a darkening Doha sky, Kylian Mbappé was not among them.

Sadly for Gareth Southgate, his players and an entire nation back home, the French FA were quick to downplay any suggestions that Mbappé could be ruled out of Saturday’s quarter-final. The star player of this tournament was, they said, simply doing indoor recovery work.

The instant, frenzied reaction to Mbappé’s absence underlined how central the 23-year-old has become to the match against England, and indeed this tournament as a whole. Earlier, in a press conference, striker Olivier Giroud and assistant manager Guy Stéphan had both been bombarded with questions about the forward.

Giroud’s response will send shivers down the spines of France’s opponents. Mbappé is the World Cup’s top scorer with five goals in four matches but, according to Giroud, he has not even hit top gear yet.

“He is amazing and he is still young, which is scary because he can still improve his game,” said Giroud. “He is very efficient. From the beginning of the competition he has been crucial for us, very decisive and competitive.

“He is the best striker I have played with, in all of the teams I have played in. And I think we have still not seen the best of Kylian. I hope it will come soon and he will beat all records. He is unbelievable.”

Stéphan, meanwhile, described the Paris St-Germain forward as an “off-the-planet” talent. “Kylian is breaking all records,” said Stéphan. “He is among the elite. He is off the planet with his skills and he is very inventive on the pitch. He has explosivity and amazing technical abilities. Every game, he shows his talent.”

Aside from Mbappé, Giroud represents the biggest threat to England’s defence. The 36-year-old became France’s all-time leading goal scorer in their victory over Poland on Sunday and his history in the Premier League provides him with extra motivation against defenders he knows well from his time at Arsenal and Chelsea.

“I know this team very well,” said Giroud. “I was talking with Hugo [Lloris, the Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper] regarding this game and we said we don’t want to lose against England, especially for us. They have so many great players, a young generation. England have quality but quantity also in the squad. They have different options.”

When is England vs France?

The match will be the last of the four quarter-finals to be played – taking place on Saturday, December 10.

What time is kick-off?

The game will kick off at 7pm GMT (10pm local time and 2pm EST).

What TV channel is it on?

The match will be on ITV – who also secured England's last-16 clash with Senegal. Telegraph Sport will also be running a live blog on the game – you can bookmark this page now and return on Saturday to follow along with our coverage.

The timing of the game has also forced lower-league clubs into trying to change the kick-off times of their matches to prevent fans missing it.

Some teams are concerned supporters may not make it home in time from fixtures that will finish around two hours earlier.

Wimbledon announced after England’s last-16 win over Senegal that they had put in a request to the English Football League and Swindon Town to bring forward their League Two trip to the County Ground.

But they withdrew that request on Monday, saying: “Discussions have taken place within the club and it has been deemed that requesting to move the kick-off time for Swindon may be detrimental to fans who have already bought tickets and made travel arrangements  The kick-off time will remain at 3pm.”

Telegraph Sport has been told Wimbledon’s was one of several such requests made by clubs.

A total of 25 EFL matches kick off at 3pm on Saturday, which sees the majority of Championship teams return to action for the first time since the World Cup began.

How have England fared so far?

They qualified top of Group B with seven points after victories over Iran (6-2) and Wales (3-0) bookended a goalless draw with the USA.

That middle match proved to be a reality check for the Three Lions who were booed off the pitch as it appeared they had replaced riskiness and joy with fearfulness. The performance was stuttering and sluggish, but it was just a blip – something which all of the top teams have suffered in Qatar – and they returned to blistering form when dismantling Wales.

In the round of 16, England made light work of the champions of Africa, Senegal, progressing to a quarter final for a third successive tournament under Southgate. Jordan Henderson, Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka finished three perfectly-worked team goals to send the  Lions of Teranga packing.

How have France got on so far?

Despite suffering several injuries, Les Bleus have looked strong in their bid to defend their title. Kylian Mbappe has terrorised defences, scoring five goals so far in the tournament, two ahead of his nearest competitors for the Golden Boot.

Their one slip was a 1-0 defeat to Tunisia in their final group game – but Didier Deschamps deployed a B-team for that match as Les Bleus had already qualified.

They were convincing in their 3-1 last-16 win over Poland and England's chances will depend on whether they can find a way to stop the phenomenal Mbappe.

What are England saying?

Jude Bellingham’s midfield partner Declan Rice says his team-mate is showing the world his talent after already performing in the Champions League as a teenager.

“He’s thriving on the main stage. It makes me happy to see that,” said Rice. When you have a player like that who is so strong and athletic and creating the chances he’s creating. He’s been doing it at Dortmund all season and now he’s doing it for us.

Rice is hoping England get credit for their authoritative win against Senegal, adding: “I don’t think we get the credit we deserve in our performances. I think if you look at other teams, like Holland and Argentina, they win their games comfortably and they get called masterclasses.

“With us, it always gets picked off. The negative things always come that way. If you look at the last couple of games, it’s been faultless. I think countries, like I said the other day, should be starting to fear us now because we’re a great team.”

What are France saying?

France captain Hugo Lloris has praised Gareth Southgate's England team as a truly “great” generation of talent that is improving at every major tournament.

Ahead of Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final between England and France, Lloris also warned of a “big battle” after carefully monitoring the development of Southgate's team during his decade in English football at Tottenham Hotspur.

Lloris trains daily with England captain Harry Kane and, having watched England’s impressively comfortable progress past Senegal in the last 16 immediately after France's 3-1 win against Poland, knows that it will be the toughest test yet for the defending champions.

France won the World Cup in 2018 when England were eliminated in the semi-finals but, even allowing for the brilliance of Kylian Mbappe, there is a strong argument that England have had the greater improvement in their squad over the last four years.

“It will be a big battle,” said Lloris. “England have a great generation of players and you can see the improvement every tournament.” Lloris became France’s most capped ever player in the victory against Poland while Olivier Giroud overhauled Thierry Henry as the country's all-time record goalscorer.

It is a measure of how this generation of French players is on the cusp of surpassing the team of Henry, Zinedine Zidane and current manager Didier Deschamps as the nation’s greatest. Pre-tournament injuries to N’golo Kante, Paul Pogba and Karim Benzema also means that it is a relatively young French squad – 18 of the 25 players are 27 or younger – and it is that blend which has given Deschamps confidence.

“It is not the same, but as you can see the group is really strong,” said the defender Jules Kounde. "Obviously they [Kante, Pogba and Benzema] are important players but we were really confident in the other players who came to replace them.”

Deschamps said that his players were “still hungry” to win another World Cup and were not content simply to have reached the quarter finals.

England vs France results history

England and France have played each other twice before at the World Cup – both group games that were won by England.

They have played each other 31 times in all formats, with England having the upper hand here too. The Three Lions have won 17, drawn five and lost nine.

But in the last quarter century, England have only won one in eight matches. The last competitive head-to-head meeting was during Euro 2012, a 1-1 draw, with Joleon Lescott and Samir Nasri on the scoresheet that day.

What is England's World Cup record?

Little needs saying here. It's a date imprinted onto the national consciousness. England are yet to make another final since 1966, but enjoyed runs to the semi-finals in Italia 1990 and Russia 2018.

What is France's World Cup record?

France are the defending champions having prevailed in Russia. They also won on their own turf in 1998. They were runners-up in Germany in 2006, losing on penalties to Italy after Zinedine Zidane's infamous headbutt on Marco Materazzi. Only two countries – Italy and Brazil – have recorded back-to-back World Cup triumphs.

EFL clubs request to move 3pm kick-offs

By Ben Rumsby

Five English Football League fixtures have been brought forward this weekend to prevent those attending them missing England’s World Cup showdown against France.

Several clubs kicking off at 3pm sought to switch the start time of their matches amid concerns supporters may not make it home by 7pm for the mouth-watering Qatar 2022 quarter-final.

Those to have been brought forward include the Championship game between Reading and Coventry City (now 2pm), matches in League One between Burton Albion and Derby County (2pm) and Forest Green Rovers and Cheltenham Town (2pm), and those in League Two between Rochdale and Stockport County (2pm) and Harrogate Town and Northampton Town (1pm).

Wimbledon had announced after England’s last-16 win over Senegal that they had put in a request to the EFL and Swindon Town to bring forward their League Two trip to the County Ground.

But they withdrew that request on Monday, saying: “Discussions have taken place within the club and it has been deemed that requesting to move the kick-off time for Swindon may be detrimental to fans who have already bought tickets and made travel arrangements  The kick-off time will remain at 3pm.”

A total of 25 EFL matches were originally scheduled to kick off at 3pm on Saturday, which sees the majority of Championship teams return to action for the first time since the World Cup began.

A number of League One and Two fixtures were previously rescheduled in anticipation of the prospect of England reaching the knockout stage in Qatar.

Several matches took place on Friday night, while many kicked off early on Saturday, when Gareth Southgate’s side would have played had they finished second in Group B.

Wycombe Wanderers’ 2-0 League One win over Portsmouth on Sunday also had a 12.30pm start, which allowed fans plenty of time to get home to watch England’s 3-0 win against Senegal.

Were England to reach the semi-finals, there would be no such clashes.

But there could be an issue for the December final.

Luton Town host Millwall in the Championship that day, with the 12pm kick-off giving fans little time to get home for the 3pm Qatar showpiece.

The previous day’s third-place play-off also clashes directly with multiple EFL games.

Latest odds

• England to win: 21/20

• France to win: 7/10