Cavani hopes to face France

Sochi – Uruguayan Edinson Cavani (below) is hopeful he will be fit in time to face France in the World Cup quarterfinals despite coming off hurt in Saturday’s victory over Portugal.

The Paris Saint-Germain striker scored both his side’s goals in the 2-1 victory in Sochi in their last-16 tie, before hobbling off with a calf problem.

“I just felt something at one point and couldn’t recover. I hope [to be fit], I’ll do everything to make sure I can take to the field with my team-mates,” Cavani said after the game.

Uruguay are due to play France in the last-eight on Friday in Nizhny Novgorod and veteran coach Oscar Tabarez said he was “worried” for Cavani, who had to be helped off the pitch by Portuguese skipper Cristiano Ronaldo and was replaced by Cristhian Stuani in the 74th minute.

“Our next game is in five days which is not a lot of time, but we will rest. Obviously we are worried but we don’t know what the problem is,” Tabarez said.

Cavani headed in a Luis Suarez cross to open the scoring in the seventh minute and then curled in a brilliant 62nd-minute winner after Pepe had equalised for Portugal.

Uruguay’s formidable defence will now hope to stand up to the threat of the French attack after Kylian Mbappe inspired them to a thrilling 4-3 win over Argentina earlier on Saturday.

“Now we have a strong opponent in France. I can’t give a very in-depth analysis because I was getting dressed while their game was on and in the last 15 min I was giving my team talk.

“But I think France’s strong point is their attack with (Antoine) Griezmann and Mbappe and their exceptional pace. If you give France space it becomes very difficult.”

Tabarez added: “We didn’t presuppose anything coming here. The players came to play seven matches. We will see if we can do it.” – AFP