We save the best of the three matches for last at Euro 2024 on Friday as the evening game sees the two biggest sides in Group D battling it out when France go up against the Netherlands in the standout clash in Leipzig.
Both these teams got off to a winning start in their opening match and so they know that a win here will see them safely into the knockout stages and potentially as group winners. Defeat isn’t critical but even a draw would be a positive result.
Where to watch
We head back to BBC1 for this final match of the day with the build-up to the contest getting underway at 7.30pm ahead of the 8pm kick off.
Netherlands
The Netherlands went into the tournament a little under the radar because of a lack of some options in the middle of the park and further forward. They will have known that it was paramount that they got their competition off to a positive start, not just to silence those doubters a little but also because they were facing the weakest opponent in the group. The fact that they picked up the win takes the pressure off them here and we can see them attack this one with some freedom.
That opening game against Poland was quite a weird one because going into the competition you would have said that the Dutch would be solid at the back but might need more going forward yet they actually looked fine in attack and created a number of good scoring opportunities but at the back they conceded from a set play and generally looked a bit too open for comfort. That is something that will need to be rectified ahead of this one.
France
There is no doubt that France went into this tournament as one of the expected leading contenders to be the champions and while they weren’t anything close to their best in the opening game, like all good teams do they picked up the win against an awkward opponent to face and have moved onto this second one where once again they have the chance to secure qualification for a knockout stage with a game to spare which would allow them to manage their squad in the third game.
France will look to improve in attacking areas the longer this tournament goes on and to be fair to them they generally do. They are a side who ensures that they have the structure to keep teams at bay sorted out as a priority and them build on things from there. They looked decent enough defensively in that first game and managed to work their way out of the Austrian press without too much trouble, which will give them some confidence here.
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Team News
The Netherlands are expected to have Brian Brobbey back in their squad for this match but whether they want to make any changes to a winning starting XI remains to be seen. Ryan Gravenberch is an option if they do.
France are waiting to see if Kylian Mbappe is able to play in this match after he broke his nose in the win over Austria on Monday evening. Eduardo Camavinga is expected to be fit but N’Golo Kante might still keep him out of the side.
Betting
As you would imagine, France have drifted heavily in the betting since the broken nose of Kylian Mbappe with the news seemingly that he isn’t going to feature in this match but while it would be beneficial if he did feature in it, I’m not convinced that France should become a 0.25 favourite as a result because they are still likely to have a front three of Marcus Thuram, Olivier Giroud and Ousmane Dembele which isn’t too shabby.
The Dutch looked all over the place defensively against Poland and you would imagine that French front three, if Mbappe doesn’t play, will still be good enough to exploit that unless there is a real improvement. The Netherlands have a bit of an issue when it comes to playing the French with seven defeats in their last eight meetings including a couple in qualifying, the latter of which was a 4-0 beating. Mbappe or not I think the French get the job done here but given the amount of draws we’ve had in this round I’ll have some draw cover on side.
Tips
Back France (-0.25AH) to beat Netherlands for a 3/10 stake at 2.04 with Bet365
