Since 2000, the World Cup seems to be overshadowed by the shadow of the "defending curse", four of the previous five defending teams met their Waterloo in the group stage. However, the previous champion France in this tournament has been successful in getting rid of this curse, not only in the group stage to stand out, more all the way through, to the last eight, the momentum is flourishing, is expected to break the record since Brazil in 1962, nearly 60 years, to become the first successful defense of the team.
The origin of the "defending curse" is none other than France, who won the title in 1998, only to go out of the tournament in the group stage four years later in an eye-opening fashion. Subsequently, Italy, Spain and Germany have also been struck, stopping in the group stage. Of the last five defending teams, only Brazil managed to break through the group stage, but were eventually eliminated in the last eight.
France has been solid in this tournament, locking up qualification early in the first two rounds of the group stage, avoiding the embarrassment of going out in the group stage, and eliminating Poland in the round of 16, at least equal to Brazil's performance in 2006, and advancing to the last eight as the defending champion, so it seems that the magic spell has gone with the wind. France will meet England in the last eight, the last time the two teams met was in the warm-up match in 2017, France won 3-2.
In World Cup history, only Italy (1934 and 1938) and Brazil (1958 and 1962) have successfully defended their titles. Whether France can become the third team to win back-to-back titles is something for everyone to look forward to.
A review of the results of the last five defending World Cup teams:
France 1998 Champions - 2002 Group Stage Exit
2002 Champions Brazil - 2006 Elite Eight Exit
2006 Champions Italy - 2010 Group Stage Exit
2010 Champions Spain - 2014 Group Stage Exit
2014 Champions Germany - 2018 Group Stage Exit
