On Friday night in Paris, France will play the Netherlands to begin their qualifying group for the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament. This comes three months after France's disappointing loss in the finale of the FIFA World Cup.
Both France and the Netherlands are placed in Group B with the Republic of Ireland, Greece, and Gibraltar; hence, it is anticipated that neither will have any significant difficulties qualifying for the tournament that will take place the following summer.
Can Les Bleus recover from their loss to Argentina in a penalty shootout back in December when it took place in Qatar? Or will the Netherlands surprise everyone at the Stade de France by exceeding all expectations?
After surrendering the World Cup final on penalties, France will still be in pain, but Didier Deschamps's squad will be hoping that they can quickly recover and go back to winning ways.
After all, France overcame adversity on two separate occasions to force additional time and penalties in the championship game, with star player Kylian Mbappe scoring a hat trick on the night in question.
It is important to note that France has only lost two of their previous nine encounters across all tournaments and that they have won six of those games along the way.
After losing only seven of their previous 71 matches, Les Bleus have shown that they are more than capable of bouncing back from the defeat they suffered in Qatar and getting back to winning ways.
The Netherlands, on the other hand, was eliminated from the World Cup in the quarterfinals by reigning champions Argentina, again falling short on penalties in both of those matches.
As a result of Louis van Gaal's decision to step down as Netherlands coach after the competition, Ronald Koeman was appointed to the position for a second time. Koeman had previously served in this capacity between 2018 and 2020.
Before being eliminated by Argentina in the quarterfinals of the 2022 tournament, the Netherlands ran a perfect 12-0 throughout the year, picking up nine victories and three draws along the way.
The Netherlands will feel confident about their prospects of thwarting France since they have not been defeated in any of their previous 18 encounters across all tournaments in the first ninety minutes of play.
When France and the Netherlands competed against one another for the last time in the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League season, both teams were victorious at their respective home stadiums.
Because both France and the Netherlands have won three of the previous six times that they have competed against one another, the match on Friday is anticipated to be a hard-fought contest.
In other team news, Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann, and Olivier Giroud are not the only regulars on the French roster; Brice Samba, Jean-Clair Todibo, and Khephren Thuram have all received their first call-ups to the squad.
On Friday, the Netherlands may give their first international caps to players such as Bart Verbruggen, Sven Botman, Lutsharel Geertruida, Mats Wieffer, and Brian Brobbey.
Even though France made it all the way to the final of the World Cup three months ago, the Netherlands will be keen to get Ronald Koeman's tenure off to a strong start.
According to a forecast made by Forebet, the match between France and the Netherlands in Paris will end in a scoreless tie, with neither side managing to score more than 1.5 goals.
TV Channels airing UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying France vs Netherlands
- DSTV
- beIN Sports
- KBC -TBA
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