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Football London
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Will Lancaster

How many times have France won the World Cup?

France's 2022 World Cup journey continued on Saturday evening after their enthralling 2-1 win over England in Qatar dumped the Three Lions out and kept Les Blues in the hunt for the trophy.

After winning their group with relative ease, France took on Poland in the round of 16 - where Kylian Mbappe's heroics alongside a smartly-taken Olivier Giroud finish saw them beat the eastern European outfit 3-1 to set up a crunch clash against Gareth Southgate's men in Doha.

Fans throughout both sets of nations were anticipating their toughest test by an absolute landslide - and with England having breezed 3-0 past Senegal on the same day France ousted Poland, supporters across the world could see the potential damage to be done by both. Of course, it was Giroud's heroics and Harry Kane's missed penalty that sent the French through.

READ MORE: World Cup 2026 venues and tournament dates confirmed

They have a grandstand clash against Morocco in the semi-final to determine who will face Argentina in Sunday's final. But how many times have France won the World Cup? Football.London has you covered ahead of Wednesday's clash.

How many times have France won the World Cup?

Surprisingly, France have only won the famous tournament twice; firstly in 1998, and more recently in 2018.

In fact, despite France's major reputation as one of the leading footballing nations, they had only ever made the semi-finals three times before their eventual win in 1998, which was their first ever World Cup final. Even in 1990 and 1998, they failed to qualify - which made their win just before the turn of the century more impressive.

Held in France, the hosts dismantled South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Denmark with ease in the group stages before knocking out Paraguay in the last 16, Italy in the quarter finals on penalties, Croatia in the semi-finals to make their first ever final. Then, in front of 75,000 fans at the Stade de France, Zinedine Zidane produced one of the best performances in his glittering career to win the trophy.

Similarly in 2018, another superstar dominated the global landscape - Kylian Mbappe. The group stage saw France one again run riot, taking seven points and finishing in top spot ahead of Denmark.

The youngster then scored a quick-fire double alongside Benjamin Pavard's goal - which was later voted goal of the tournament - to take France through to the quarter-finals, where they beat Uruguay 2-0.

A tense 1-0 win over Belgium in the semi-final and 2-1 win for Croatia over England set up a grandstand finish in Moscow - where Les Blues dispatched of their opponents with ease to claim a second trophy.

Of course, that could well be a third time come the end of the weekend, with only Morocco and Argentina standing in their way to become just the third team to reclaim the famous golden trophy.

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