Complex but far from insurmountable. The France team knows its opponents for Euro 2024 (June 14-July 14). Kylian Mbappé’s teammates will face Austria, the Netherlands as well as Poland, Wales, Estonia and Finland who will play in the play-offs next March. As a reminder, French coach Didier Deschamps was absent in Hamburg, one of the ten host cities of the European Championship which will be played in Germany, due to a back operation.
“It’s difficult,” admits Didier Deschamps, who would have surprised people by saying the opposite. 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 entire Netherlands is one of the best European nations, close to eliminating Argentina in the World Cup. Poland has the most experience out of the four possible play-offs. »
Kylian Mbappé’s Blues will first play against Austria on June 17, then against the Netherlands on the 21st and finally on the 25th against the play-off player, who will be known after the play-offs in March. These will be Poland, Wales, Finland or Estonia. Not a walk in the park but very far from being the hell of 2021 with Germany, Portugal and Hungary…
“First, there is an unknown factor about one opponent but we know the other two,” explains Guy Stéphan, present in Hamburg to represent the French clan. The Netherlands remains a sure bet in European football. 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). Austria was in Belgium’s group and only finished one point behind Belgium, so be careful. We will have to be ready from the start.”
As for the players, Olivier Giroud, who should play his last Euro with the Blues, reacted quickly. “We know the Netherlands very well,” he admits on TMC. I was dreading running into them because they are not easy to play. It’s a good group, I think we remain favorites. You will have to be serious to do the job in this group. Austria has a great generation, good club players, we will have to be wary of them. A rigorous speech, without excessive ambition, but the Blues know they are big favorites. Even with the Netherlands in their group.
