Gary Neville believes only one team has a chance of stopping France at the World Cup this summer, as things stand.
Didier Deschamps’ side have been sensationally good so far in the tournament and continued their rampant form as they hammered Sweden 3-0 in the last 32 on Tuesday night.
Kylian Mbappe added two more goals to his tally, taking him to six for the tournament, and Bradley Barcola got the other one in New Jersey.
The French have been cutting through teams almost at will so far, beating Senegal 3-1, Iraq 3-0 and Norway 4-1 before this latest romp.
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Up next for them is Paraguay, who knocked out Germany on Monday night but will be distant second favourites when they meet the relentless French side.
Neville reckons the only team looking like they can compete with France right now is Argentina, who also sauntered through their group with three wins and face Cape Verde in the last 32.
The former England defender thinks the defending champions could be the ones to stop France, but hasn’t seen anything from other teams yet to put them in the same bracket.
‘The only team I can see stopping France right now, because of the mentality, is Argentina,’ Neville said on ITV. ‘Because of the nastiness and the horribleness and their experience.
‘That’s the only team I can see that’s got the unity right now that I think could stand in front of France.
‘Look, something may emerge. England, Spain, Portugal, we may see a step up. Let’s hope so.’
He added: ‘There’s a long way to go but you look at them now thinking, you’ll have let yourselves down if you don’t win this. Because they’re so far ahead, at the moment, of where the other teams are in terms of level.’
On the devastating attack of Mbappe, Barcola, Ousmane Dembele and Michael Olise, he said: ‘That four that started the game – they will cause nightmares for every single defender in the tournament and I don’t know how they stop that to be fair.
‘A level above. Brazil won in the last minute. Germany and Holland have gone out. They are showing everyone else in this round how to do it.’
France play Paraguay next, with the winner of that game taking on Canada or Morocco in the quarter-finals.
Likely semi-finalopponents for whoever comes through would be Spain or Portugal and Ian Wright said that France will be fearing no one as much as their opponents would be fearing them.
‘France in this form. They’ll be more worried about playing against France than they’d be worried about playing Spain or Portugal,’ said the Arsenal legend.
‘It’s only if France have a total capitulation, which I can’t see, for them to [not] go on to win it. I can’t see what’s stopping them at the minute.’