France's footballers play for top clubs, but Australia are striving to be "a great team" rather than a bunch of individuals at the FIFA World Cup, Australia forward Mathew Leckie said on Friday.
"Obviously, we know that the individual players of France play at the best clubs in the world, and on paper it's obviously a better side than us. But we've tried to work over the past few weeks to go into the game as a great team rather than individuals, and we've worked really hard on being a compact team," Leckie told journalists.
Australia, who have been drawn in Group C, will face 1998 champions France in their first 2018 World Cup match in Kazan on Saturday.
"We're here at this World Cup to get out of the group stage... We're focusing on tomorrow against France," Leckie said.
Peru and Denmark, the other two teams drawn in Group C, will play in Saransk, also on Saturday.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup will last till July 15, with the games set to be played in 11 Russian cities.
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