If you wanted to bet on the tone of Didier Deschamps’ reaction after the Euro draw, you would have won for sure. From his home on the Côte d’Azur, due to a back operation, the coach of the France team reacted without surprise after the draw for the Euro (June 14-July 14). With measure, distance and without igniting in any way.
The Blues will face the Netherlands, Austria and a play-off, which appears to be an affordable draw, without being a walk in the park, but Croatia, Denmark and even Italy were avoided. “The Netherlands are 6th in the FIFA rankings and remain a sure bet in European football,” he says. Austria is underrated in my opinion, there are very good players with Lensois Danso, David Alaba at Real Madrid. We experienced big difficulties in Austria in the Nations League (1-1 in September 2022) and this nation was in the Belgium group and only finished with one point, so be careful. We will have to be ready from the start.”
The Blues will begin on June 17 against Austria before challenging the Dutch on the 21st. A favorable sequence? “Facing Austria then the Netherlands, it’s almost impossible to gain strength,” Deschamps says. We will see if during the last match, it will be possible to manage more. In the event of two victories in the first two matches, this option will be possible. To have…
“It’s a difficult group,” says the coach of the vice-world champions. Of course we beat the Netherlands in the last two matches but their draw from hat 3 makes for a difficult group. It’s a dense group. Potentially, the Netherlands have more qualities but the Austrians are not easy to play. The whole Netherlands is one of the best European nations, close to eliminating Argentina in the World Cup.” A complex draw but far from insurmountable in the end.
