The other match to conclude Group D in the Euro 2024 tournament promises to be an exciting encounter in the German capital of Berlin as the Netherlands and Austria battle it out for finishing position and the better route through the knockout stages.
Barring a five goal loss for Austria, both of these sides will be playing knockout football. Austria need to win to avoid England and face someone like Slovakia or Romania in the round of 16. If the Dutch avoid defeat it will be them facing one of those two unless France lose the other game in which case the Dutch will win the group if they avoid defeat.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the BBC2 channel in the UK with the shorter build-up to this one beginning at 4.45pm ahead of the 5pm kick off.
Netherlands
There were plenty of people not really keen on the Dutch heading into this tournament, myself included, but it is hard to pick too many holes in their opening two performances. Their first game saw them edge out Poland but if they had any kind of clinical edge to them, which to be fair was one of the reasons they weren’t thought more of heading into the competition, then they would have won that much more comfortably than they did and they should have beaten France but for a questionable VAR decision which went against them.
The Dutch have certainly looked better going forward than many expected them but their play hasn’t translated into the goals that they should have had for the quality of the chances that they have created. Where there is a concern is at the back where Poland opened them up far too easily. To be fair they tightened up against the French but without Mbappe, France looked quite timid. I’m not convinced my the Dutch midfield either but their technical quality can’t be questioned.
Austria
Two matches into the tournament and there are a lot of people liking what they see and have seen from Austria. They are so much fun to watch with their aggressive pressing style which is pretty relentless. They have taken the game to France and to Poland in the tournament and their reward for that is that as long as they stay upright in this match then they are going to be into the knockout stages where they could be a handful for anyone.
The only disappointing thing when watching this Austrian side is that we don’t get to see just how good they are with a couple of key players who are missing. Nevertheless, they are a team who look to get at the opposition high up the pitch but that does leave them a little exposed defensively if the press is played through or bypassed. You would imagine they will give this a good go, especially as they can still win the group.
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Team News
You would imagine the Dutch are going to look for a focal point in their attack to play into in which case Wout Weghorst could come into consideration as they look to negate the Austrian press. No other changes are expected.
Austria are going to be without defender Gernot Trauner for this match and Ralf Rangnick suggested that he will miss the round of 16 game as well. There are no signs that any other changes will be made for this one.
Betting
I was considering taking over in goals in this match because ordinarily I did think that this would be a crazy game with so much attacking intent but the draw is just too much of a runner now for me to get involved in that but the styles of these two sides should still make for a great contest and so I like the 1.85 on both teams to find the back of the net. Although both teams are likely to be through to the next stage, they will still want to go through in second or even win the group if France slip up which should provide some sort of competitive edge here.
Austria are going to press the Dutch high and will get some joy from that at times but the Dutch are technically good enough to beat that press or if they would prefer they could start Wout Weghorst and go into him from the back and take the press out of play so I think both sides are going to get some joy here. Both teams have the attacking players to take advantage of the chances that they are given so at a solid price I will back both teams to find the back of the net in this one.
Tips
Back Both teams to score for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with William Hill
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