On Tuesday afternoon, France’s World Cup hopes — and, likely, Ousmane Dembélé’s Ballon d’Or hopes — came screeching to a halt when Spain won the World Cup semifinal, 2-0. It was a poor performance from all of Les Bleus’ stars, Dembélé included. He didn’t manage a single shot until the 95th minute.
It’ll be a small consolation, but France has a chance to go home with some silverware anyway. Les Bleus will face England in the Bronze Final in Miami on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET, and a bronze would complete Dembélé’s collection (he already won gold in 2018 and silver in 2022).
France vs. England odds
France is a -110 favorite to win in regular time at DraftKings Sportsbook, and the Three Lions are +270. There are +285 odds that the teams will require extra time.
Below, I’ll break down my favorite prop bet centered around Dembélé.
Ousmane Dembélé Best Prop Bet
Ousmane Dembélé 2+ Shots on Target (+195): Dembélé has had a strong tournament, recording five goals and two assists and getting at least two shots on target in three of his seven matches. England didn’t demonstrate the strongest central defense against Argentina, especially late on.
Best Ousmane Dembélé Prop Bet
Ousmane Dembélé 2+ Shots on Target (+195)
Regardless of the result, this will go down as a fairly successful World Cup for Dembélé. Despite being on the roster, he didn’t score in either the 2018 or 2022 World Cups, but his mid-career renaissance with Paris Saint-Germain has been tremendous, and he carried that over into this tournament. Dembélé’s first-half hat trick against Norway, in which he scored on all three of his shots, was one of the most noteworthy individual performances of the tournament, and he iced the match against Morocco with a 66th-minute strike from well outside the box. All in all, he recorded at least two shots on target in three of his seven appearances, making +195 pretty friendly odds.
England clearly has its imperfections defensively, especially centrally. While wing-backs Djed Spence and Reece James both played well in the defeat to Argentina, Ezri Konsa and John Stones both lost Lautaro Martínez at the far post for the Albiceleste’s winner, and since he’s mostly played in an attacking midfield role, he’ll spend les time going up against Spence, James, and Nico O’Reilly and more time challenging Konsa, Stones, and Marc Guéhi. The Three Lions also aren’t that deep defensively, especially after defensive midfielder Jordan Henderson’s freak arm fracture, so Dembélé could feast on their backups if Thomas Tuchel chooses to rotate his squad.
